Imperfect, when being with you
by Minali
Summary: Suzu Hoshino tries to live a perfect life by being the best student at her school and being able to always win in turf war and ranked battles. Everything goes as planned until a certain Inkling shows up in her life.
1. Chapter 1 - Intruder incoming

Chapter 1 – Intruder incoming

"Hold on to your tentacles...", Callie immediately started blabbing when the cameras turned on.

"It´s Inkopolis News time!", Marie went along.

Callie continued: "Before we come to the new updates and the current arenas, where you can battle on, we have a special guest, who we would like to introduce to you!"

"But I´m sure they know her already, Callie..", Marie objected.

"Well and if they don´t, they will after seeing this!"

Marie sighed: "Let us introduce you to Suzu Hoshino, the new star in Inkopolis!"

Right after that, the camera Inkling moved his camera a little bit to the right, so that the audience could see me, standing next to the Squid Sisters. Honestly I was a tiny bit nervous, being in the News the very first time in person. Sure, they had shown tons of video material of me, battling in turf and ranked battles but this was different! This was me, actually standing next to the very famous cousins.

Shyly I waved to the camera, when Callie went on with the show: "So are we going to have another band member or why is she the new star?"

"No, stupid! Suzu is well-known for being able to win every turf and ranked battle since she has started splatting! And that with such a young age!", Marie explained.

Callie beamed: "Yep! Suzu only turned 14 three months ago. When she doesn´t deserve to be called a star, then who does?"

"Anyway, we wish you the best of luck on your next battle! Now on to the updates.", Marie changed the subject.

With that the camera Inkling waved his camera back to it´s original position, being the sign for me that my work was done here. I gladly walked off the stage and grabbed my backpack, which I had placed on a chair. Ready to leave the studio I said my goodbyes to the backstage team and went straight to the tower. I had another battle to win, after all! Breathing in the familiar air of sweat and paint, I smiled to myself. That´s the place I belong to and not that fancy studio I had been some minutes ago.

But what didn´t I do to be perfect? Yep, that was actually my goal. I wanted everyone to look up at me. Wanted to be the best in whatever I do. At school, at turf and ranked battles. Just everywhere with no exceptions! I was just Suzu Hoshino. The perfect Inklinggirl with the perfect scores at school, with an A+ rank at ranked battles and in addition to that very popular among other Inklings. But don´t get me wrong here. I was actually a normal Inkling, living a normal life. Just with an odd habit to seek perfection in whatever I did. But that didn´t mean I was snobby or something. In fact I was being really nice to the sea creatures around me. Not that it was always easy to do so..

Anyway, when I had finally reached the tower, I registered myself with my ID-card and headed directly to my locker. There I put off my regular clothes and switched to my battle clothes which consisted of an helmet, purple boots and a black shirt. When I was finally done changing, I threw one last look at my mirror, only to be greeted by my brown eyes and my long hair, which was currently orange.

A little smile escaped my lips when I nodded to my reflection and whispered:" Let´s do this, Suzu!"

With that I closed my locker and went to the waiting room. It didn´t take long until my name was called, so I grabbed my Aerospray RG and went to the room where I was supposed to meet my teammates. I could only hope that they were decent enough to work with. Otherwise it would get very difficult to keep my perfect score. But this was turf war, so my A+ score in ranked battles was safe. Though if I would loose this battle, my perfect reputation would be gone, so that better won´t happen!

When I entered the room there were two boys sitting on a couch. One was equipped with an Inkbrush, while the other had a Splat Charger with him.

"Suzu! Wow, I must be really lucky to have you as my teammate!", screamed a girl who rushed directly towards me.

It took me a moment to recognize her. She was actually a classmate of mine. Her name was Mari.

"Hey Mari. Sure didn´t expect you to see here. I see, you use a Splat Roller as a weapon?", I greeted her.

"Yup! Its just the best weapon to cover the ground with!", she exclaimed.

We must have gotten the attention of the other guys, since they looked straight at us.

"Hey. This is Mari and I´m Suzu. Got any plans for the upcoming match?", I started a conversation.

"I don´t think that you have to introduce yourself as everybody already knows you. But my name is Mark and my friend here is called Max.", one of the Inklings answered while the other one waved at us.

"Nice to meet you. Well, I guess the best idea would be that Mari and your friend there would cover the ground at our base while we would run forward to confront our enemies, since we have the better weapons for that..", I suggested while pointing at his Splat Charger. "Of course this is just a suggestion. So if you have any other ideas..", I added.

"No, no. Your plan is fine. If the big Suzu isn´t right, then who is?", Mark chuckled.

"Oh, I´m not that good..", I kindly said.

"This girl sure is modest!", Mari commented as she lightly hit me on my shoulder.

It didn´t take too long until it was time for our fight. I beamed when Judd announced that we would battle in Walleye Warehouse, since this was my very favorite map! As the battle was about to start, my teammates and I positioned ourselves on the warp zones which would take us to the battlefield.

"Let´s splat them!", I said to encourage my friends one last time.

And there it began! We were warped directly to the map and the battle began. As we, or better said I had planned, Mari and Max covered the area around our basement while me and Mark stormed directly forward. While he took the right side I went to the left side and made my way through an alley. There I splatted everything around me until I reached a dead end. So I decided to head to the center of the battlefield, splat a little here and there and then rush to the left alley, which lead directly to the enemy´s base. There I could splat our opponents, easily preventing them to go any further. But sadly an Inklingboy noticed my plan and splatted me from behind, so I was warped back to my basement!

"Sneaky, little bastard!", I cursed. "But not with Suzu Hoshino! I will get my revenge!", I encouraged myself.

So I went right back where I had seen him the last time, but oddly enough I didn´t find him. I found it a bit weird but still followed the alleyway which was covered in blue paint again instead of orange. Naturally I covered it back in my color, when all of a sudden that very same Inklingboy appeared right in front of me out of nowhere, only to shoot me again.

"Son of a squid must have that invisible ability to be unseen in your own ink, right? Oh, the fight is on!", I said through gritted teeth.

Once again I made my way through to the center of the battlefield, but this time I used the right alleyway. My plan was to sneak up on him and splat him back to his rotten basement! And so far, my plan worked very good. The guy was still sitting in the same place. So I quickly rushed towards him and splatted like crazy. I noticed that I indeed caught him off guard because he was jumping like he was insane, trying to avoid my paint. This fight was already mine to win until suddenly an Inkstrike appeared to happen right behind me. In shock I stopped splatting my opponent and quickly turned around, when surprisingly a hand grabbed mine and pulled me into the alleyway.

With big eyes I looked at my enemy and said: "Are you dense?! I´m not in your team, you idiot! So splat me already!"

He grinned: "No need for that since we have already won."

"What?!", I shouted in disbelief only to be interrupted by Judd, who indeed stopped the battle and announced the victory of our opponents and at the same time my first loss.


	2. Chapter 2 - Outburst

**Hey there! I hope you liked the first chapter! This one is a little shorter, but I promise that they will get longer in the future :)**

 **I´m just not used to write english fanfictions but it´s a super practice for me and I just can´t stop myself from writing this story because I´m so obsessed with this pairing right now *.***

 **So if you like this story or have any advice for me, let me know through a review :)**

 **Anyway, here´s chapter 2!**

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Chapter 2 - Outburst

"News time!", Callie exclaimed.

"Again? But we have already announced the current battle arenas!", Marie said as she wouldn´t know what was going on.

"I know, I know! But our star Suzu Hoshino lost her very first battle!", the black-pink coloured Inklinggirl explained.

Marie looked shocked as she said: "What? Really? How could that happen?!"

Callie nodded: "As our video material shows, she was busy battling a certain Inklinboy the whole time!"

"So she got distracted by him and therefore didn´t pay attention on painting the turf?"

"Exactly!", Callie dramatically threw her hands above her head.

The silver-green coloured Squid Sister grinned: "Right now, we have both of them in our Studio!"

Callie went on: "Let´s welcome Suzu Hoshino and Shiro Masato!"

A fake applause could be heard. I rolled my eyes but still went on the stage, along with my former opponent.

"Suzu! Do you have any idea what was going on? I mean, any suggestions what happened down there?", Callie asked me immediately.

I shrugged: "I don´t know. Maybe it wasn´t my day. Anyway my team still did a great job. I guess our enemys are quite the impressive opponents. They definitely earn my respect."

"Wow. You are a good sport, aren´t you?", Marie commented.

The other Squid Sister turned to the blue coloured Inklingboy: "So Shiro, since I don´t recognize you at all, you must be really new to this business?"

"Not really. I just rarely go onto battles, that´s all.", he explained.

"Oh, interesting. But then you must be really good at battling! I mean, you did beat our star after all!"

He shrugged, scratching his head.

"May I ask how old you are?", Marie asked.

"15.", was his short response.

"I see. So do you have anything to say about the last battle, before we end it here?"

Again he shrugged: "I guess, good battle?"

He raised his hand in my direction, obviously wanting to shake my hand. As annoyed as I was, I still faked a smile at him and gently put my hand into his.

"Well played.", I cheered.

"Wow! These two are fair players, right there.", Marie commented, amazed by our mature behaviour.

Callie beamed, like she usually did: "So that´s all for now, folks! As always.."

"Stay freeeesh!", both of the Squid Sisters squealed.

And with that the cameras turned off and the show had found it´s end. I sighed in relief. Quickly I rushed off the stage to grab my things. I just wanted to get out of here and that as soon as possible!

Finally exiting the studio, I went to a vending machine and bought myself a cola. I leaned against a wall and with relish enjoyed the cold drink.

How the heck did I loose? This was just... Unbelievable! And absolutely not my fault!

"So she got distracted by him and therefore didn´t pay attention on painting the turf?", I imitated Marie. "My ass!", I scolded.

So what if I had chased down that idiot instead of coloring the ground? That´s what I always do! I mean, why do I have teammates at the first place, when they are too stupid to cooperate with me? They could have painted the turf as well!

"Bunch of idiots!", I said my thoughts out loud.

This was just not fair.. My perfect score.. Gone forever! Everyone will loose their respect for me. Maybe they will even make fun of me!

"Fuck!", I ranted again.

This was all his fault! If it wasn´t for him, I would have won again and everything would have been perfectly fine! But noo! Stupid Shiro Masato has to play the complete jerk and ruin my plan!

"I just rarely go onto battles, that´s all!", I screamed. "I just hope that you rarely go out of your house as well, so that I have to never see your ugly face again, jerk!"

"Pfff..", someone chuckled next to me.

In shock, I quickly turned around to see that very blue coloured Inkling, who I was ranting about just seconds ago.

I blushed. Damn! I thought I was alone here!

"W.. What´s so funny?", I asked politely

Who knows? Maybe he didn´t hear my monologue.

"Oh nothing. But I have to disappoint you. I do go out very often.", he chuckled.

Crap.

"How much did you hear?"

"Umm, let´s see.. I guess pretty much everything.", he shrugged.

"Aren´t you.. Offended?", I asked carefully.

"Huh? Why? Should I? I think your rage was pretty funny and cute.", Shiro blushed. "You should definitely consider to become an actor!", he added.

...Funny..?

...Cute?...

HE THOUGHT I WAS ACTING FUNNY AND CUTE?!

HE HAD JUST DESTROYED MY PERFECT LIFE AND NOW HE IS MAKING FUN OF ME?!

WHO CARE´S WHAT HE THINKS OF ME? IT´S TOO LATE ANYWAY!

SO..

FUCK IT!

"Just who do you think you are, hmm? You think you are better than me? Wrong! You just got lucky out there, that´s all. With more decent teammembers I would have totally crushed you! But no! I got paired up with those idiots! Are you happy that you caused my first loss? Fine. But it won´t change anything. I´m still the star of Inkopolis and nothing will change that, squid bag! Got that? Then get out of my way!", I yelled at him.

I reluctantly passed by him and didn´t look back even once. Guilt was rushing up my spine. Normally I wouldn´t have acted like that. But it just seemed like he wasn´t taking me seriously.

My anger.

My plans.

Like it was just a big joke for him! I just hoped that I would never see his face again.


	3. Chapter 3 - Won t get rid of you

**Hey! And here I am with a new chapter! Again it´s not that long but this way you get to know how the Story continues, right? So you didn´t have to wait that long for an update! I hope you enjoy it :3**

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Chapter 3 – Won´t get rid of you

"Beep, beep, beep..", a loud sound woke me up.

Still tired, I slowly opened my eyes and looked at my alarm clock to see that it was exactly 6:30 am.

"Is it time already?", I mumbled half asleep.

I rubbed my eyes and turned the alarm off.

I yawned: "What a day.. Still so tired.. Don´t wanna go to school.. mhh.."

Unmotivated I stood up and went to the bathroom. I quickly brushed my teeth and then went under the ink-shower.

"What colour should I use today?", I asked myself.

I decided to use bright turquoise ink, because in my opinion that went very well with my school uniform. So after a quick ink-shower I went back to my room and changed into my said school uniform. I liked it very much because of the checkered skirt and the sea horse barrette, which I usually put on my hair. Fully dressed I looked at the reflection of my mirror. I found this outfit very cute, so i packed my schoolbag and went downstairs to get myself some food.

"Good morning, honey. Did you sleep well?", my mother greeted me with a bright smile.

"Yeah, but too short..", I answered honestly.

She placed my breakfirst at the table in the kitchen and I immediately sat down and started eating.

It´s only the two of us living in this big house now. My father passed away a long while ago and I don´t have any simblings. Man, I remember that time so clearly.. It was very hard for us.. Especially for my mother.. So I guess that´s why I became like that.. Trying to be perfect. I just wanted my mom to be proud of me. That she doesn´t have to worry about me since she had enough problems on her own already. And I think that habbit of mine kind of went overboard by now..

I still miss him. My father.. He was a great dad and made my mom very happy. But somehow we managed to live without him by now. I mean we had no choice after all. But I still miss him. And I bet mom as well. She didn´t even start dating again. She just stayed single up until now.

"So when will you return today?", my mom asked.

"Oh, school ends at 2 pm. So at 2:30 or something like that?", I answered.

I stood up, ready to take off.

"Have a nice day, honey."

I waved at her: "Thanks! See you later!"

On my way to school I thought about many things. Actually I was kind of scared as well. My classmates must have seen that match on tv yesterday. But they wouldn´t make fun of me because of my loss, or would they?

I sighed. Hopefully this day won´t be that crazy like yesterday. Having my first loss and my first outburst in front of that.. Guy... Ugh.. What was his name again? Shiro Masato? I just hoped to never see that guy again and that he kept his mouth shut about.. About my behaviour. But then again who would believe him? They would just think that he wants to destroy my good reputation since I am more famous than him.

Totally lost in my thoughts, I reached school quicker than I thought.

With a heavy stomach I reached the door which would lead me to my classroom. One last time I took a deep breath and entered the room.

"Morning.", I said as cool as I could. I didn´t want anyone to notice that I was nervous.

"Good morning, Suzu! Im really sorry about yesterday. I wasn´t much of a help, was I?", Mari pouted.

I faked a smile: "Don´t worry. It wasn´t your fault. You did absolutely fine. Our opponents were just too strong for us, I guess."

"See Mari. I told you Suzu would say something like that!", a green Inkling joined our conversation.

"Morning Lukas.", I greeted him.

"Yo! You still did a great job out there, Suzu."

I nodded.

It seemed like nobody cared that much about my first loss. Everyone was friendly like always. So I was really relieved. After I had talked to some other students, our teacher entered the room and everyone including me sat down.

"Good morning, everyone. Before we start this lesson, I have someone I would like to introduce to you. He and his family just moved to Inkopolis, so be very kind to your new classmate Shiro Masato!", our teacher announced.


	4. Chapter 4 - All-round man

**And here´s another chapter! I hope the grammar is okay in this one, remember that I´m not used to write english fanfictions! And I kind of wrote that one in a hurry, since I really wanted to update!**

 **Anyway, I hope the story is still enjoyable :)**

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Chapter 4 – All-round man

Wait, what? After our teacher had announced the arrival of a new student, the door to our classroom opened and a purple coloured, male Inkling entered the room. Furthermore he already wore our school uniform and was that very Inklingboy, who had beat me yesterday at turf war. Shiro Masato!

I stared at him, with my mouth wide opened. Was this guy following me, or what was his problem?

"So Shiro, do you have anything to say to your new classmates?", our teacher asked him.

He shrugged: "Well, I´m new here so take good care of me, I guess?"

While he looked around class, our gazes suddenly met.

The boy grinned.

FUCK!

I KNEW IT!

NOW HE WILL TELL EVERYONE ABOUT MY OUTBURST AND MY LIFE WILL BE RUINED!

I panicked. This can´t be coincidence, right? First he had beat me at turf war, then he had made fun of me and now he is attending the same school and class as me? No way! This guy had an evil plan! He wanted to destroy my perfect life, I was sure of it!

I was getting really nervous but I still tried to keep my cool. There was no way I would allow a kiddo like him to terrorize me! I will show him who´s boss!

"Alright. You can take the seat next to Suzu, Shiro. But before you do so, take this with you.", our teacher said to Shiro, while handing him a worksheet.

Slowly I looked to the seat next to me, which was indeed empty. I was shocked.

"Are you kidding me? Life sure started to hate me!", I thought to myself.

"What´s this for?", the Inklingboy questioned the pink coloured adult.

"Oh, don´t worry about it. It´s just a little test, so I get to know how far you´ve come at your old school. If there´s anything on this sheet, you haven´t heard of at your old school, let me know.", she explained.

Shiro nodded and sat down on his chair.

I stiffened. I slowly turned my head to his direction, but the boy thankfully didn´t pay any attention to me, because he was already busy with his personal test. I chuckled. Poor guy. He hadn´t fully arrived in his new class and he immediately had to take that test. Though I didn´t like him, I sure pitied him for that. And it seemed like he sure had some problems completing that sheet, because he shook his head numerous times, while I observed him.

Maybe he wouldn´t be such a troublemaker after all. I mean compared to him, my grades were perfect.

So he wouldn´t be a competition to me, right?

After the first lesson was over, Shiro finally handed the worksheet back to our teacher. But obviously she just placed it on her desk, because she was busy with teaching us.

I felt a little bit relaxed and grinned to myself. Maybe this was the opportunity to show the kiddo how good I really was?

So eager to do so, I paid full attention to our next lesson.

"And this is the reason, why Inklings under the age of 14 aren´t allowed to fight in turf and ranked battles.", our teacher finished explaining. "Shiro, could you repeat my last explanation?"

He obviously got caught off guard.

"Ummm.. Well..", he mumbled.

I chuckled: "Inklings under.."

"Inklings under the age of 14 aren´t allowed to fight in turf and ranked battles, because they still are unable to change their body forms by wish.", Shiro all of a sudden cut me off.

I glared at him.

"Very good.", our teacher praised him.

But that wasn´t everything.. At first I thought he just got lucky, because I was sure of it that he hadn´t paid any attention to the lesson. But he just had to over do it and piss me off, hadn´t he?

I really tried to show off my knowledge. Every time our teacher asked a question, I immediately raised my hand. But when it was my time to answer, that son of a squid had just cut me off and answered instead of me! So in the end it seemed like we battled each other in who could impress the teacher more. And that lucky bastard just had to have better reflexes than me!

"Very good, Shiro! I´m quite impressed by your knowledge!"

And with that our first four lessons had ended. Nerved I packed my things together.

"Wow, Shiro! You answered every question correctly!", our teacher all of a sudden exclaimed.

I looked up and noticed that she was actually talking about the worksheet, Shiro had to do in our first lesson. I looked at her in disbelief. Was she kidding me? But I saw him! He had shaken his head like crazy, like he hadn´t known even one answer!

I directly looked at the Inklingboy who once again grinned at me.

Frustrated I stood up and went to the gym, since we had PE next...


	5. Chapter 5 - One loss per day

Chapter 5 – One loss per day

"Hey Suzu, wait up!", someone called after me.

I sighed. Can´t they just leave me alone? I already had enough for one day, thanks to that guy..

Nerved, I still turned around to see Mari.

"What is it?", I asked politely.

"That Shiro guy! Isn´t he the one, who we had fought yesterday?", Mari asked.

I shrugged: "Yep, that´s him."

Suddenly she started to beam: "Oh my god, I knew it! If I had known that he is so cool, I would have definitely talked to him sooner!"

My eyes grew bigger: "What are you talking about? He isn´t cool at all."

"What?! Are you blind? Just look at him! He is good at turf war, he is smart and really good looking! All the girls are head over heels for him, already!", the bright blue Inklinggirl tried to convince me.

I just rolled my eyes and went to the locker room. What was so awsome about that guy? Yeah, he knew some things and got lucky at turf war. But he didn´t really seem special looking to me..

I sat myself down on a bench and got rid of my uniform. Instead I took my purple shirt and my black, short pants and put them on. I also changed my normal shoes into sneakers and went directly to the gym after that.

"You were so cool on the News! I saw the whole thing and the video material, too!", a girl from my class squeeled.

Another one joined her: "Yeah and you are pretty smart as well! But you have to be, right? You did beat Suzu after all!"

I looked to the other side of the gym, where the boys usually hanged out. And I immediately regrettet it. A big swarm of girls had built up around Shiro, while he smiled like an idiot and scratched his head.

Are they serious? Wow, he answered a couple of questions in class. I´m so impressed!...

NOT!

Like for real.. What was so special about him?

Fortunately Mrs. Anderson entered the gym and ended that idiocy.

"Today we will exercise some more for our sports day, which takes place the day after tomorrow. So everyone grab a Splat Charger, while I will decide who will be in which team.", she announced.

Like we were told, everyone stood up to get their weapon. When it was my turn to grab my gear, someone already offered me a Splat Charger by holding it out to me.

"Here.", was all what the person said.

I looked up to stare directly at Shiros grey eyes.

Was this a test? Or did he manipulate that gun so I wouldn´t be able to win?

I shook my head. He wouldn´t have had the time to do this.

So I harshly took the weapon and hissed: "I could have grabbed that by myself, you know?"

And with that I went back to the girls´side and sat down.

It seemed like forever for PE to end, since Mrs. Anderson didn´t pair me up with anyone, because in her eyes I was more advanced than the others..

But eventually she agreed to let me at least fight at the last battle. And guess who my opponent was? Yep, Shiro.

I grinned to myself. I wouldn´t let him win again! This time it was my turn to shine and to finally get my revenge on him!

At first everything went super well. Instead of heading directly to Shiro to splat him, I stayed behind and let the others rush forward. I was the one who painted our base and the area near it with our colour. But I still was very carefull, since our gym wasn´t that big like a normal battlefield in turf or ranked battle. When every single spot was finally coloured in our paint, I also rushed forward to help my teammates. And again I tried to keep my distance from Shiro. I hated to admit it, but I did respect him for beating me the last time. So I went after my other enemys and it was really fun to do so, because I managed to splat Lukas a bunch of times which kind of got me my self-respect back.

And then the last thirty seconds started. It looked very good for our team. Most of the gym was splatted with our colour, so the only task to do was to keep our opponents busy to prevent them to get any territory back. But all of a sudden all of my teammates got splattet and therefore they warped back to our base.

"What happened?!", I screamed into the communicator.

"Sorry. Shiro suddenly rushed towards us and got us splattet, one after another. Be careful, he might be heading towards you now.", an Inkling informed me.

I gulped: "Listen guys. I will take care of him. You just take care of the others, got it?"

With that I kept on going towards the enemy´s base. But with the information in the back of my head that Shiro might be near by, I was being very careful. So I splattet every spot which was painted in the enemy´s colour, but was also conscious of my surroundings.

Suddenly I heared a splatting sound right behind me. Quickly I turned around to be indeed confronted by Shiro trying to splat me. The next thing I did was to shoot and jump like crazy, as well.

"Stop!", our teacher screamed to end the battle.

In the end whether Shiro nor I were able to shoot each other.

Exitedly everyone waited for the results to be announced. Who did win? Shiro´s group or mine? I had to say that I had mixed feelings about this battle. On the one hand our team did a great job. Most of the time we had the upper hand of this fight. On the other hand Shiro really messed around the situation in these few, last seconds..

"Wow. This sure was a tight battle. However the winner with one percent more covered ground is team purple!", Mrs. Anderson exclaimed.

All the girls in the audience started to cheer Shiro´s name, while I looked at my hands in disbelief.

Why? Why did I loose again?

I started to tremble.

Shiro however walked up to me and once again hold his right hand in front of me.

"This sure was a tight battle! Good work!", he smiled.

Tears started to flow down my cheek.

I raised my head to look directly at him and shot him a glare.

Furthermore I smacked his hand away and stormed out of the gym.


	6. Chapter 6 - Sakura

**Hey guys! Sorry that I didn´t upload sooner but I also have a real life and other hobbies ^^ And sorry for this extremely short chapter but I promise the next one will be much longer and things will get... interesting ;) By the way, this story almost reached 2500 views and I would really like to thank you guys for supporting this story! Until next time ~**

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Chapter 6 - Sakura

"Okay, so what´s going on?", a familiar voice asked me.

"Hmm? What are you talking about, Sakura?", I asked innocently.

"Who are you trying to fool? We have been shopping, eating and all that stuff and you keep on sighing the whole time! So stop fooloing around and tell me what´s on your mind.", the light pink coloured Inklinggirl commanded.

I smiled to myself. That was so typical of her. I had known Sakura for many years now. And since then she had been my best friend as well. You could say that she was the only one, beside of my mother of course, who knew who I really was and why I acted the way I sometimes did.

"Well, there is that guy..", I started, but my friend abruptly interrupted me: "A guy?! Don´t tell me that you fell in love!"

"No! Just hear me out before you assume things!", I exclaimed.

"Sorry..", my friend almost whispered.

I started again: "There is that guy who annoys me recently.."

"How so?", Sakura asked curiously.

"Well, I met him when I fought in turf war the last time. He was..", I paused.

Could I really tell her about my first loss? Wouldn´t she make fun of me? No, that wasn´t the problem. Sakura knew me and would never make such a thing. But what could happen is, that she wouldn´t understand me. She always criticized my need of being perfect. But she did care for me and if I wouldn´t tell her the truth, my friend would be just more worried about me.

"Go on..", Sakura woke me up from my thoughts.

"He was the first Inkling to beat me..", I confessed.

"So?"

I knew it.

"Well, he ruined my perfection, duh!", I lightly hit her on her shoulder.

The light pink Inklinggirl rolled her eyes: " Oh my god. Don´t tell me that´s why you are so depressive today!"

"That´s not the whole story! After the battle I went to the vending machine and got me a drink. I really thought I was alone there, so I got careless and scolded out loud..", I went on with the story.

"And he heard you?"

"..Yeah..", I said a little emberassed.

"Pffff... Hahahahaha! I can´t believe it! Really? And what did he say?", Sakura started laughing.

Through gritted teeth I said: "He found it amusing.. So I screamed at him and then left him by himself."

"Wow. That´s unusual of you.", my friend commented.

I nodded: "I know! But he really got me upset! And the worst of all is that he is visiting the same class as me. It seems like he had moved here or something.. "

"Wow, your luck sure ran out!", my best friend snickered.

"You might be actually right. Because he beat me in PE as well.. I´m sure that guy is planning something!"

"And what might that be?", Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"Ruining my perfect life, of course!", I almost screamed.

Once again my friend rolled her eyes: "Don´t you think you are overthinking some things? Anyway, tomorrow is the turf tournament, right? I´m sure, your school will win again!"

"I don´t know..", I said with a tiny voice.

I really didn´t know. Maybe my luck really ran out and tomorrow will be my third loss. But on the other hand Shiro wasn´t my opponent, this time. In fact, this will be the first time that we have to work as a team. Will we manage to do so?


	7. Chapter 7 - Teamwork?

**Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait but here is finally chapter 7 ^^ I´m not really good at describing action scenes so I hope you won´t go too harsh on me?**

 **Anyway from this point on the story will get interesting as you will see at the end of this chapter :) So hopefully you look forward to future chapters!**

 **Thanks for the many followers, favourites and reviews this story recieved! It just shows your support and it keeps me writing this stuff.**

 **Until next time!**

* * *

Chapter 7 – Teamwork?

"What?! But you don´t understand! I have to be in the team!", I tried to convince my teacher.

"And you are. We will just use you in the very last matches, so the others stand a chance against us.", my teacher winked at me in response.

"But!", I still tried to argue but the pink coloured Inklingwoman only shook her head and brushed me off.

I sighed in annoyance and went to the many benches which were placed on a huge stage, so you could watch the matches from above. Carefully I placed my second favourite weapon, the Krak-On Splat Roller, down and sat myself next to it.

Didn´t that stupid teacher understand? Didn´t she see the battle between Shiro and me, which I had lost?! So what was the point in holding me back?!

"Umm, hey..", someone woke me up from my thoughts.

I looked up to see my favourite Inkling of the world in front of me... Not!

"What do you want?", I hissed at him.

He scratched his head: "Umm, I wanted to say sorry.. For yesterday? Well, I´m obviously not sorry because the match was fair and square, but I surely didn´t want to make you.. cry..", the grey eyed Inklingboy said the last words with a tiny voice.

Surprised and embarrassed at the same time I raised an eyebrow but couldn´t help blushing, either.

"What are you even talking about?", I stood up and shoved Shiro out of my way.

Still embarrassed I walked far away from that guy, only to bump right into Mari who was also a teammember of us.

"Oh, sorry Mari. I didn´t see you there!", I apologized.

"..You know, that wasn´t really nice what you said to Shiro.", she immediately commented.

"Huh? You saw that?", I asked surprised.

"I sure did. What is your problem with him? You normally don´t act that way towards others, Suzu! And he is such a nice guy!"

I swollowed.

Shit, so she saw how I had behaved towards Shiro? But since my outburst in PE everyone knew that I didn´t really like him. Obviously I had to give her some explanation, right?

Therefore I shrugged and said: "I dunno. I just have a bad gut feeling about him, that´s all."

"And what is your gut telling you?", Mari questioned me.

Again I shrugged: "Maybe he is hiding something.."

"Hahahaha, don´t you think that you are overthinking things? Like what would he hide, anyway? He is nice, good looking, smart and very skilled."

Suddenly a loud voice could be heard.

"Attention! The first turfwar will begin in five minutes!"

"Oh, I have to go! And to prove that your gut is wrong, just watch Shiro fight and you will admit how admirable he really is!", Mari smiled before she went downstairs to our other teammates.

I rolled my eyes at her last comment, but still sat down to watch our team play, which consisted of Mari, Shiro, Lukas and Ben. Well and of course myself, who wasn´t allowed to play...

Sighing in frustration I tried to look around my surroundings. The whole building was quite big. As I stated before, this place was practically a big gym hall with ramps and alleys to make it suitable for turfwar battles. In fact it was pretty similiar to our gym at school with the only difference it being smaller than this one. Of course this building was no competition against the normal turfwar arenas, which are held at the center of Inkopolis, but it was sure enough for school tournaments like this one.

Again my view turned towards our team, because I wanted to know which weapons were split among my teammates. The first thing I noticed was that Mari used her Splat Roller like she always did. Lukas also had his Splatter Shot ready, his most favourite weapon. While Ben held a Luna Blaster in his hands, I quickly glanced at Shiro, who casually held a Splat Charger over his shoulder.

"I guess now I know what HIS favourite weapon is.", I mumbled to myself.

Finally a teacher from another school arrived and explained the tournament rules for everyone. And after that and a short team discussion the first turfwar finally began. As usual Mari stayed behind and splatted our own base, while Ben and Lukas went straight forward seeking a Splatduel. Again my eyes drifted towards Shiro who immediately vanished in an alleyway, only to hide on one tall ramp, where he could easily spot and splat the enemys. Of course I didn´t watch him because Mari told me to do so. The only reason why I eyed him that closely is because this way I might obviously find out some of his weakpoints, which I could use against him afterwards.

But I had to admit: That Inkhole knew how to use his weapon.

While he took down one after another of our opponents, our other mates could easily concentrate on colouring the ground.

"If they go on like this, this battle will be ours.", I commented.

Right after I said that my eyes caught one of our enemys, who tried to sneak up on Shiro.

"Oh, so one Inkling of them has a brain after all.", I grinned

Sure, I wanted my team to win. But this was really interesting to watch, since Shiro seemed to be not aware of the other Inkling´s presence.

"What will you do now, Shiro?", I asked myself.

The other Inklingboy slowly moved towards our Sniper when surprisingly a hidden Inkbomb started to explode, immediately splatting the poor guy.

"That clever Bastard!", I exclaimed.

So he knew that something like this would eventually happen? He isn´t only skilled but also a tactician! Damn!

My eyes once again grew bigger when I realized that someone else tried the very same thing. No Inkbombs left, so what will Shiro do now?

Before I could even I ask myself this question the grey eyed Inklingboy jumped right off the ramp, turned around and splatted the intruder right away. And that while being still in the air!

I was stunned in awe. How the heck did he notice him?

It didn´t take long for the battle to finish and of course our team was the one who had won.

Still in awe I watched our teammates celebrating our victory by jumping around like crazy.

Maybe he was a little cool. But just a little...

* * *

After several victories our team had managed to make it to the very final battle.

"Teach! It´s the last one! So can I please join my comrades?", I pleaded.

"Haha, okay fine. Mari, is it okay for Suzu to take your place?", The Inklingwoman asked the dark blue coloured girl.

Mari smiled: "Of course! Besides she would rip my head off if I were to disagree, right Suzu?"

"Come on, I would never do such a thing!", I put on a fake smile.

So after a short group discussion I was finally standing in the gym itself, along with my classmates who were lined up behind me.

"Ready.."

I put my Krak-On Roller on the floor, ready to rush off.

"Set.."

A bright grin formed on my lips.

"Go!"

I rushed off and quickly tried to cover our base in our colour, so my special attack, the Kraken itself, would be usable. Once it was ready, I ran directly to the enemy´s base, turned into a Kraken and splatted everyone who got in my way.

There was no other way to describe it: Our team destroyed the other one!

Once my special ability had reached it´s limit, I quickly turned back to the middle of the gym hall, to avoid any intruder who could sneak up behind me.

But I guess I was a little too slow by doing so, because all of a sudden I felt someone shooting ink behind me. I planned to rescue myself by turning around and splatting that idiot, but unfortunately I twisted my ankle and fell flat on the ground.

Fastly I looked up again and saw that the opponent still ran towards me, trying to splat me.

Was he dense?

Couldn´t he see that I was actually hurt?

In panick I reached for my Roller and tried to desperately sprinkle some ink on him, when all of a sudden that idiot was shot instantly.

I looked up, only to see Shiro jumping off a ramp and heading towards me.

"Hey, are you okay?", he said while offering a hand to me.

I blushed but still said: "Are you stupid? Hurry back to your position, or we will loose!"

Instead of answering me, he grabbed my hand and tried to pull me up.

"Ouch!", I screamed in pain.

"Damn. We have to look for a doctor.", He commented.

I hissed at him: "Not now! We still have a battle to win! I can´t.. I just can´t loose again!"

Suddenly the Inklingboy started to grin at me.

"Don´t worry.", he said while showing me the digital map of the battlefield.

And he was right. Almost the whole map was coloured in our ink, making it impossible for the others to win.

"So... Do you seek revenge?", Shiro still grinned at me.

"What do you mean?"

I couldn´t even react when he all of a sudden picked me up, holding me bridal style in his arms.

I blushed furiously: "What.. What do you think you are doing?!"

"Do you know how to use this weapon?", he asked me while giving me his Splat Charger.

"Sure.."

"Good.. So let´s splat that son of a squid who broke the rules by attacking you.", Shiro winked at me and started to climb up a ramp.

It didn´t took long for him to spot him, too.

"There he is. Are you ready?", he asked.

I shyly nodded, still not sure what to think of the current situation.

"Then charge!", my mate screamed enthusiastically.

And I did.

And I stroke.

And I splatted him

* * *

After that, we had indeed won the whole tournament. It was really refreshing to win again.

The guy who broke the rules also got scolded and had to apologize for his actions.

But one question was still in my mind and had been unanswered.

Why did Shiro do that for me?

So in order to finally get some answers from him, I waited in front of the locker rooms for him. After getting my ankle treated, that is.

"Hey, can we talk for a minute?", I asked him, immediately as he exited the boys locker room.

"Sure. What´s on your mind?", he asked.

"Alone?", I asked again.

Shiro nodded so I lead him to the rooftop of the gym, where we would be definately alone.

As we reached the top, I leaned against a wall and got to the point why I called him out here in the first place.

"Why?", I started.

"Why what?"

"Why did you help me back there? Why are you being so friendly with me? I mean, I obviously don´t treat you very nice so what is your point? What are you planning?"

At first the Inklingboy just stared at me. But then he suddenly started to grin and before i knew it, he pressed his lips against mine.


	8. Chapter 8 - The Kiss

**I really didn´t want to leave you guys with a cliffhanger like that, so I quickly wrote a short chapter.**

 **Again thanks for your support and also corrections. Remember I´m not used to write english fanfictions, so I would be really glad if you would correct me if I´m doing something wrong, so I could avoid making the same mistakes over and over again!**

 **Hope you like this chapter :3 I think it turned out really.. sweet? :P**

 **Till next time ~**

 **P.S.: Happy Splatfest :D**

* * *

Chapter 8 – The Kiss

"Why? Why did you help me back there? Why are you being friendly with me in the first place? I mean, I obviously didn´t treat you the same way. In fact, I did quite the opposite!"

At first Shiro didn´t do anything but stare at me. But after a short while he started to grin like he had made a develish plan just now.

"Just what are you plan...", I wanted to ask, but was cut short by the Inklingboy who put his right hand on my left shoulder and immediately pressed his lips against mine.

First I didn´t even realize what exactly was going on. The whole thing just happened so fast and unexpected! But after a few seconds reality hit me hard and my eyes grew bigger, being surprised and shocked at the same time. There he was, Shiro standing right in front of me, his head leaning down and pressing his sore lips on mine, his eyes being closed of course!

Obviously I wouldn´t let allow him to do what the hell he wanted with me! So I leaned my hands against his chest and tried to push him away from me. It worked.. For some seconds..

"What the hell!", I managed to yell, but was once again silenced by him.

This time he shoved me right back to the wall, which I was leaning on some seconds ago and again the blue coloured boy kissed me to quieten my complaint.

Once again I tried to get out off his grip, but he held my right arm against the wall and pressed himself against my other hand, which was still placed on his chest. So yeah, there was really no way out. I was trapped.

Never I would have expected him to be that much stronger than me! And this was the first time I had realized that he was quite a little taller than me, too.

With no way out of escaping the situation, I once again looked at his face. A bright blush spread on my own because I noticed that his eyes weren´t closed anymore. In fact he looked directly at me, his eyes being half opened and the same shade of red plastered on his own face.

It kind of seemed like Shiro was really.. enjoying this moment? I mean he looked so passionate.. And his grey eyes almost sparkled with desire.. Or was I just imagining things?

Somehow his passion passed onto me, so I kind of relaxed a little bit and halfly closed my eyes as well. Noticing this, Shiro now fully closed his and started to plaster one kiss after another on my lips. As I mentioned before his lips were really sore compared to my own. But nevertheless they were really warm and comfortable... Slightly enjoying myself my left hand clinged to his shirt, while I finally started to kiss back. At this point I really didn´t know what was going on anymore. My head started to feel dizzy and all I could feel was this warm emotion which was spreading in my body.

Slowly I also fully closed my eyes. Somehow it felt like the situation was out of control, since Shiro now loosend his grip on my right arm. So instead of holding it up against the wall, his left hand wandered to my right hand only to intertwine them.

I swear, we must have looked like a couple who madly made out with each other...

"Shiro! Yo, Shiro! Where the heck are you?!", all of a sudden someone called.

This made an abrupt stop to our make out session, since Shiro slowly removed his lips from mine.

His face still being near my own, he kind of looked really disappointed and still a little in trance as well, while he murmured: "Damn.."

Then he stepped back, scratched his back of his head and said: "I gotta go.."

With that he opened the door which was located next to me and went back to the main building, supposely returning to the person who had called him some seconds ago. Before he had left though, I noticed that he had been still red as a tomatoe.

So while being left on my own my body slowly slid to the ground, wondering what the heck had happened.


	9. Chapter 9 - Aftertaste

**Hey! Sorry again, that I didn´t update sooner! But I was kind of busy with my other fanfictions. Anyway from now on I will update more often and I promise the next chapter will be longer. Hopefully you still enjoy this story :)**

* * *

Chapter 9 – Aftertaste

"He kissed you?!", Sakura exclaimed, while I just nodded my now beet red head.

"Wow. That´s... Interesting..", she added.

Embarassed as I was, I now stood up and almost screamed at her: "Interesting? What do you mean by that?! I´m just.. so confused.. I can´t believe this even happened to me!"

"Why? Was it your first kiss?", my best friend started to grin.

"Don´t be rediculous! Of course it wasn´t my first!"

"Oh really? I didn´t know you were such a playsquid. So who was your first then?", the pink Inklinggirl asked me.

"Ugh.. A guy from my childhood? But I don´t remember his name.. I think his name startet with the letter "G" or something like that..", I answered her, being quite annoyed.

"Oh, come on girl! A childhood friend? That doesn´t even count! Anyway, so did you like the kiss?", her grin becoming clearly bigger now.

As she asked me this, my face started to burn with embarassment again: "I ugh.. no.."

"You are lying...", Sakura almost sang that sentence.

"Well, it wasn´t bad! However, the more important question is, why he did kiss me in the first place, though.", I said.

"Hmm, if you ask me there are only two possibilities. The first one would be, that this guy really likes you. But it could also be, that he is in fact a playsquid, so he might just be fooling around with you.."

I sighed at her opinion.

"However this story will end though, I´m quite exited about how the whole thing will proceed!", Sakura playfully hit my arm. "Maybe you will get a boyfriend sooner than me!"

"Stop it, Sakura! I don´t even like this guy! He is my rival. My enemy!", I exclaimed.

"Never say never!", my friend finally said, before we continued to talk for a while until we both went to our homes.

After being kissed, I just had to talk to someone about the whole situation. So after I calmed myself from the recent events, I immediately had called Sakura to meet me at the town central of Inkopolis.

I must say, I felt a little better after talking to her. But I was still very confused. Why had Shiro kissed me? Was he really a playsquid? Well, he was always surrounded by Inklinggirls and he was always awfully nice to me, though I was being rude to him since I met him. So it could be that he was only playing with my emotions..

So what if he was? Why did this possibility give me such an unsure feeling in my stomach?

And why the heck did I return that damn kiss?!

I shook my head to let go of these thoughts and went straight home. Whatever that boy was planning, I would definately find it out sooner or later!

With that I opened the door,only to be greeted by my mother, who was watching TV right now.

"Welcome back, honey! How was the tournament?"

"Great. We won as usual.", I answered.

"That´s good to hear. Oh, by the way! Did you hear that from tommorow on, there will be new rules at turf war and ranked battle?", my mom mentioned.

Curiosity got ahead of me: "Really? What did they change?"

"I´m not sure. They just mentioned it on TV. But you know how I am. I didn´t really listen because I´m not that interested on that topic."

I smiled at that. It was true. My mother never was that much onto splating. In fact neither was Sakura.

"It´s okay. I will look it up later."

And with that I went to my room and immediately looked up the new rules on the squidnet.

 _Maximun level raised to 50_

 _Rank S and S+ have been added_

 _New Maps, Gear and Weapons available_

 _Possibility to do private battles_

I read through the article and groaned.

"Seriously? Rank S+?! Ugh, I guess I know what I will be doing tomorrow after school..", I talked to myself.

As the thought of tomorrow came into my mind, I suddenly felt sick. How the heck should I approach Shiro, after what he had done to me today?


	10. Chapter 10 - Playsquid?

**Yay! Another chapter! Are you happy? By the way, I hope everyone knows that by "Playsquid" I really refer to the word "Playboy" xD**

* * *

Chapter 10 – Playsquid?

Standing in front of our closed classroom door, I was being really nervous. Lost in thoughts, my right hand rested on the doorknob, not knowing if I should really enter that hellhole. I mean, what will await me there? Will Shiro confront me with what happened yesterday? Or will he just ignore me and act like nothing even happened? Am I the only one being so nervous about this whole thing? Or did the Inklingboy feel the same? Slowly I breathed inn and out. I swallowed. My grip on the doorknob tightened and I hesitated to open the door, but I did it anyway. Quickly I scanned the room, seing the usual suspects there. It didn´t take me long to catch that certain Inklingboy, who happened to be the one I was searching for in the first place. Immediately my mood changed from being nervous to being really pissed off. There he was, sitting on his chair and of course surrounded by various female Inklings of our class. I could also see the envious looks of several Inklingboys, probably wishing to be able to immediately switch places with Shiro. A bitter smile formed on my lips. I guess now I know the answer. That son of a squid was definately a playsquid. No doubt on that anymore..

Slowly I moved my legs to head directly towards the today light blue Inklingboy. Apparently he noticed me because he looked right at me and greeted me with a cheerfull "Good morning". My bitter smile grew only bigger. With a loud sound I crashed my hand on his desk, gathering everyones attention.

Mari who was one of the girls surrounding Shiro gave me a shocked look.

"Oh my squid, Suzu. What is wrong with you?", she asked me while shaking her head in disbelief.

I ignored her. Instead of answering her, I gave Shiro a glare.

"I wouldn´t pay too much attention to him, if I were you. After all he IS a playsquid!", I announced, faking a happy smile.

With that I moved to my desk, placed my schoolbag next to it and seated myself on my chair. It was quiet for a while. I guess nobody didn´t realize what the hell just happened. But after some seconds of tranquility an Inklinggirl finally spoke up.

Shocked, she asked: "Wait, is it true Shiro?"

And right after her question everyone started to babble again. Honestly it was really funny to see all the girls panic like that and Shiro trying his best to somehow get out of his miserable situation.

"That´s what you get..", I whispered to myself, a wide grin plastered on my face.

The commotion didn´t take long to calm down again though, since soon the teacher arrived and started to order everyone back to their seats.

"Before we begin, I´d like to remind all of you that next week we will do a little trip to the sideseas, next to Inkopolis. So be ready to bring some clothes with you, since we will stay the night there.", our teacher reminded us, before she started with the lectures.

Oh my squid, I totally forgot about that trip! And I was so looking forward to it as well, since it would be a whole different scenery compared to big Inkopolis city!

The sideseas were in fact very less inhabitated than Inkopolis, so of course I could enjoy the beautiful and natural surroundings!

Really exited about the new information, I happily nodded to myself and exactly knew, what I would be doing after school today!

* * *

"Ooooohh, that one will come in handy!", I talked to myself while I investigated a red-white hoodie.

Nothing special happened during classes. In fact I tried to ignore Shiro as best as I could and luckily he left me alone for once. So I guess he was just fooling around with me. Anyway as soon as classes ended I went to the town central and went shopping in the Booya-base. It wasn´t like I really needed something there, but some new clothes never hurt, right? So with that in mind I bought myself that warm, stylish hoodie and a grey blouse, which looked pretty casual to be honest. Once I was done I headed directly to the main tower in Inkopolis. Of course I was really curious about all the new stuff they brought in turf war and ranked battles! So once there I immediately investigated the information board, where they usually mentioned every single new change. I skipped through all the stuff which I already knew until something special caught my eyes.

 _Get splatted in ranked battles! There are now three possibilities to enjoy this beautiful chaos._

 _Splat Zones_

 _Rainmaker_

 _Towercontrol_

 _We promise you that each mode will mess you up the right way!_

I smirked to myself. This DID sound really interesting.

"Let´s pick a weapon and INK!"


	11. Chapter 11 - Meet cute Tsubasa

**Yay, another chapter ^^ I´m so sorry that you guys always have to wait that long and then the chapters are so short.. What can I say? I´m a lazy writer, plus sometimes I don´t have time to write anything. Anyway no worries, I will keep updating :) More SuzuXShiro coming up next chapter :D**

* * *

Chapter 11 – Meet cute Tsubasa

I already knew how splat zones worked, considering I was already at rank A+ so I figured I should try out one of the new modes. So in the end I decided that tower control sounded really fun. According to that, I carefully picked a fitting weapon for this mode and finally chose the 52 Gal Deco. What can I say? I like to try out new weapons! After I changed into my normal battle clothing I finally went to the waiting room to meet my comrades for the next battle. I really hoped to meet nobody I knew, especially a certain Inklingboy. Really though. I was still pissed about what he had pulled on me. But today luck seemed to be with me, since my teammates were complete strangers to me. Three Inklingboys I didn´t know. So after a short introduction and a little planning about who should go where, we finally went to the warp zone and warped to the map, where the match was supposed to be held. Bluefin Depot. I grinned to myself, because I exactly knew how my tactic would be on this one!

"Rank S+, you soon will be mine!", I cried out, when the battle started.

Immediately I started to rush forward, deciding to take the right route. It didn´t take long to meet gazes with my first oponent, since everybody seemed to have the same stupid idea of rushing directly to the tower. But instead of concentrating on the tower, I stopped running and send a seeker directly to my enemy. BOOM! He exploded out of his clothes and back to his own base. Shortly after another enemy approached the tower, but luckily I was there to give him the exact same treatment as his buddy before. After I took two Inklinggirls down, I finally rushed to the tower myself and took control of it, so it moved towards the enemys base.

"What the heck are you guys doing?! Protect me, for Inklings sake!", I screamed into my mic, so my teammates would hear me.

But unfortunately it seemed like I was once again paired up with idiots, since they did nothing to help me win this battle! How the heck did they even manage to get a high rank like that?!

I sighed to myself, answering my own question out loud: "By being carried by another Inkling, that´s how.. Seems like today it´s my job to do so.."

Determined to win this battle, I chose to fight by myslef. It didn´t really seem like my enemys were any better than my comrades anyway. And I was right! After I took control of the tower, I just had to hide in my ink and dodge their attacks by splatting them, if they were to attack me. One Inkstrike at the end and presto! We won the battle! Happily we warped back to the waiting room. While one of our teammates decided to leave the party, another Inklinggirl entered the room, being our new teammate. Immediately as she saw me, she rushed over to me.

"Wow! You were amazing out there! I saw the whole thing!", she praised me.

A little taken aback from the sudden compliment, I eyed her closely. She was a cute, bright blue coloured Inklinggirl with purple freckles on the ends of her tentackles, dressed in a super cute, white dress and being a little shorter than me.

I finally looked at her shining, purple eyes and answered: "Thank you.."

"Oh, don´t worry! I won´t let you hanging like the other dudes did. I´m really good with my E-liter 3K Scope!", the girl answered happily.

I looked at her weapon and immediately an immage of Shiro came into my mind, since he used the same model as the petite girl in front of me.

I just nodded my head and we went back to the warp zone, to enter the next battle. Like before our other teammates really did nothing to bring us victory. But with me using the same technique as before and with the new girl, protecting me from above we managed to win this battle once again! As the battle was over, once again the cute girl came running to me and babbled about how an awsome team we were.

"Ah by the way, my name is Tsubasa!", the energic Inklinggirl squeeled.

"Nice to meet you, my name is...", I wanted to answer politely, but was cut short by her interupting me.

"Suzu Hoshino. Everyone knows you! It´s a pleasure!", she beamed.

I smiled right back at her.

"So, are you ready for another round?", she winked at me.

"You bet. I´m after rank S+ after all!", I laughed.

"Good! That makes two of us then."

And with that we went back to splat on another battle.

* * *

"That was awsome! We make such a great team! Who is at rank S+?", Tsubasa exclaimed, while embracing my left arm.

"We are!", I finished her sentence.

After various of battles on tower control, Tsubasa and me joined some battles on rainmaker mode as well. We really made a super team and hardly lost any battle. And with each battle we won, our bond seemed to grow bigger. It was really strange. I didn´t know this girl for too long but somehow I felt an connection between us. It´s like we were some kind of soulmates or something. Anyway I was glad to make another friend, since I really hadn´t that many because of my little... problem. But with Tsubasas enthusiastic self it was easy for me to not play the perfect Inklinggirl for once in a while. I wasn´t faking my friendlyness towards her or anything. Being friendly towards her was real, because I really started to like her. So after managing to get on rank S+, Tsubasa and me went to eat some ice cream before we headed back to our homes. It was a really great time. I even told her about my school and about my best friend Sakura. Maybe I did find a new friend, I could rely on?


	12. Chapter 12 - Ink bubbles

**Hey guys! I know, it´s always the same with me. Again I let you wait way too long, but you have to understand that I am just a human being who has a life as well. So yeah, lately I hadn´t much time to write but finally here I am with a new and probably the longest chapter so far! But before you read the chapter, please first read this:**

 **First of all someone reminded me that it isn´t that easy to get an S+ rank in ranked battles like I described it to be in my last chapter and I fully agree with you. Let´s just say that Suzu and Tsubasa got very lucky that day, okay ;) (I just suck at describing action scenes so I guess I went with the easy route there)**

 **Second of all I probably confused some of you with which squid has which colour, so I wanted to clarify this by mentioning the most important characters in my story.**

 **Suzu was born as a bright yellow squid, with pink freckles on the end of her tentacles. Her freckles are quite special because they always stay pink. You could say this is her birthmark which makes her quite unique. (Eyecolour brown)**

 **Shiro was born as a bright blue squid. (Eyecolour Grey)**

 **Mari has blue eyes and is dark blue herself.**

 **Lukas has purple eyes and is green himself.**

 **Sakura has pink eyes and is also pink.**

 **And last of all Tsubasa is a bright blue squid as Shiro, but she has purple freckles on her tentacles and she has purple eyes.**

 **However Inklings can change their colour by will by using special ink showers!**

 **With that, I hope everything is clear now so far ~**

 **So before you are finally going to read the next chapter, please listen to this song, while reading the passage which I marked with this sign: /**

Just type in OSO Blue song + Lyrics on Youtube

 **It goes really well with the scene I described and on my opinion the song should get more attention by other splatoon lovers as well.**

 **Alrighty, I hope you like this chapter, since I think I did do a great job on this one. I await your opinion as always in the Reviews! And thank you so much for over 11000 views! Just remember that I will continue and end this story, despite me not writing for a while!**

 **Take care ~**

* * *

Chapter 12 – Ink bubbles

I yawned as I walked to the front gate of our school, carrying a little bag with some spare clothes and other stuff with me. Purposely I went there super early because I didn´t want to wake up my mother, since she had a very long night at work. So here I was, standing all alone at the place where my class was supposed to meet. Or at least I thought I was alone, because not much longer another Inkling made his way to our meeting point. Not caring who it actually was, I lazily raised my hand to greet my classmate. First I didn´t get any response. But after he came closer to me, I exactly understood why. There he was, Shiro Masato who looked a little surprised by my action, but he still raised his hand to greet me, coming closer and closer. I slowly lowered my hand. Sure I was suprised to see HIM that early in the morning and I sure was mad at me for greeting HIM. But I was really too tired to make a scene about it.

"Morning..", the light blue Inklingboy greeted me.

"Up so early? How come?", I asked, looking everywhere but at him.

He scratched his head: "I could ask you the same question."

"Maybe I´m just an early squid..", I obviously lied.

Shiro dropped his bag on the cemented floor and sat down on it: "Maybe it´s the same with me.."

After that little awkward conversation we sat/stood there in silence. I couldn´t help but glance at him sometimes. He just looked like a normal Inkling. Not macho like or anything. Maybe a little bit fresher than others. But him being a playsquid? Still I couldn´t believe what had happened between us. I mean, why me? I was anything but nice to him and he just didn´t stop being polite.. Did he really just play with me? He obviously didn´t seem like a bad Inkling, despite being my rival at turf war..

"Why?", I whispered my question out loud.

I was a little surprised when Shiro looked up at me and repeated my question by saying: "Why? Why what?"

"Why did you..?", I wanted to say but was apperently cut short by Lukas who had arrived at the meeting point.

He put an arm around my shoulder and greeted us: "What´s up, squid-kids? What are you two doing here all alone? It´s quite suspicious, ya know?"

In this moment my eyes grew bigger, as Lukas really surprised me with his sudden entrance. A little frightened I pushed myself away from him, saying: "Whoa, Lukas! Where the hell did you come from all of a sudden?"

"Behaving suspicious as well, I see. And I always thought you two hated each other!", the green Inklingboy grinned.

"Wha.. What?! What are you hinting at, you dork?! We two just happened to be the first ones here, that´s all!", I defended myself, starting to blush heavily.

The purple eyed Inkling raised an eyebrow, still having his grin plastered on his face: "Oh yeah? So if that´s all, then why are you blushing like a love sick squid?"

"Just stop it, Lukas. You never stop teasing Inklings, do you?", Mari suddenly appeared.

"Man, you´re such a party pooper. Things started to get interesting!", Lukas pouted.

But the dark blue Inklinggirl completely ignored him and brought all her attention to Shiro by greeting him extra nicely.

"Sweet Morning, Shiro. Is everything alright? You look tired.", She commented with the sweetest smile she could afford.

"Huh? Oh, hi there. Nah, everything´s fine. I just hate to get up early, that´s all.", he lazily responded.

Now it was me who raised an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah? But I thought you were an early squid?", I commented.

But the light blue Inklingboy didn´t answer. Instead he looked away from me, being embarassed? And did I see correctly or was the guy really blushing right now?

I wanted to ask him more questions but was interrupted by our teacher and other students arriving in front of the school gate. From there on it didn´t take long for the rest of our class to arrive and so we were shortly able to enter a bus and drive to our hotel for the night, which was located near the sideseas.

* * *

When we finally arrived at the hotel, our teacher allowed us to bring our bags and other stuff to our rooms, before we would head to our first destination, the sidesea museum. Unfortunately my roommate was Mari. Well, I wasn´t really unfortunate with that.. Mari was the Inklinggirl I always would hang out with at school. And yeah, I suppose we were something like fake best friends at school. But truth to be told, I didn´t really consider her as my friend. Sure, she was nice and polite and all but she also was so... exhausting? What I mean is she always talks about herself, her concerns, her worries and her preferences and I am the one who always listens.. or not. Fact is that she doesn´t know my true self so I don´t consider her as a real friend. So I guess I could have had a more annoying roommate, right?

Anyway after I parked my bag on my bed, we went back to the main entrance of the hotel and all together we went to the museum. It was quite interesting to learn more about the species who had lived on the surface before us. Apperently their bodies were kind of built similiar to our humanoid form. And they seemed like they were fresh like we are, considering the technology, music and clothes they had. Although there were also some things in the museum, which are still unknown to us. Like a really weird, thin stick with a hole in it and a green, small container where you could store the stick.

After our visit at the museum was done, our teacher allowed us to wander around the actual sideseas, but of course with at least three people in one group. And luckily how I was, I was thrown into a group consisting of Mari, Lukas and yes of course, SHIRO MASATO. So you could imagine my enthusiasm, right?

Despite being in this dream group, our little tour around the seaside was actually quite fun. It was awsome to be in a landscape, where there weren´t many Inklings or buildings around. So it was really refreshing to be in the nature, walking beside the sea and enjoying the silence compared to big Inkopolis.

After a while, our group also decided to wander around the forest until it was time to finally head back.

"Hey guys, we are quite late. Shouldn´t we slowly go back?", Lukas suggested.

"I agree. Maybe we will be faster if we follow the river this time?", Shiro agreed to Lukas´ plan.

So we did what Shiro suggested and followed the river until we came to a point, where we actually had to cross the river to get to the other side.

"I... Isn´t there another way? You guys are aware that we are NOT in turf war. So if we fall into the water..", Mari stuttered.

"Don´t be such a lame squid, Mari. I thought you were fresh! Here are enough rocks to jump on. Nothing can happen.", Lukas screamed from the other side, while he was the first to sucessfully cross the river.

After I easily crossed the river as well, it was now Mari´s turn to follow.

"I.. I don´t know. What if I slip?", the scared Inklinggirl said.

Mari being really unsure of herself and the whole situation, she dropped on her knees and started to cry.

"I´m sorry.. I.. I´m too scared to jump!", she whined.

As I secretly rolled my eyes, Lukas was about to head back when suddenly Shiro took Mari´s hand and "forced" her to her feet.

"Come on, don´t cry. Everything will be fine. Just get on my back and I will get you to the other side safe and soundly.", my rival encouraged her.

Wait, what?! SHE on HIS back?

So after his kind words Mari immediately stopped to cry, slowly nodded her head yes and got on his back. It literally looked like a romantic drama movie, as the two of them crossed the river together what seemed to happen in slow motion. At least for me this was the case. And Mari´s happy and dreamy face really didn´t help much in this situation either!

"There we go. See? You are still in one piece, as I promised!", Shiro bubbled to Mari, while placing her back on the ground and offering her a smile.

´Why is he being so friendly to her? Does he have a crush on her? Or is he truly a playsquid?´, I thought to myself while I still watched them in disbelief.

In response to Shiros kindness, the dark blue coloured Inklinggirl just started to blush like an idiotic squid, madly being in love. And I knew her good enough to know that she in fact fell in love with Shiro Masato in this very second.

* * *

After we had made it back safely to the meeting point, not much happened in the late afternoon. In fact we just ate something and went straight to bed. Unfortunately Mari didn´t think for a second to actually leave me to sleep. Instead she bubbled all about how much she was in love with Shiro until she finally fell asleep, leaving myself being fully awake next to her. Feeling different emotions at the same time, I figured to get up and get some fresh air. As I headed to the sea, different thoughts were floating in my mind. For a fact, I didn´t really like how Shiro had helped Mari back in the day. Just the thought of him, holding her behind him and flashing her that kind smile of his made me feel weird inside. But what exactly did I feel? As I slowly approached the sea, I saw a humanoid figure kneeling in front of the sea.

"What is that Inkling doing?", I asked out loud.

As soon as I asked myself this question, I saw the Inkling getting nearer to the sea.

My eyes grew bigger at this very sight.

WAS HE TRYING TO COMMIT SUICIDE?!

I quickly rushed over to the stranger and desperately jumped on him to stop him of getting near the sea, making us both fall on the sand. Suddenly a big wave of water was right ahead of us, so the other Inkling rolled us over to the left side, so the water wouldn´t hit us.

"Are you crazy?! You could have killed us!", a similiar voice screamed at me.

"Shiro?", I now looked at the Inkling straight in the face.

"Just what the hell did you think you were doing?", he still screamed angrily at me.

Now being pissed as well, I shoved him off of me and screamed back: "Me? What the hell were YOU doing, getting that close to the water?!"

 **/**

Suddenly his anger seemed to fade away, since the light blue coloured Inklingboy flashed me a little smile and showed me a familiar object in his hands.

"This.", he simply answered.

I scanned the object more carefully and finally realized where I did recognize it from.

"But isn´t this from the museum? Did you steal this?!", I exclaimed.

"Nah, just borrowed it.", he said this like it was the most normal thing to do.

"Are you insane?! If they catch you..!"

"Don´t worry. I will bring it back, so they won´t even notice."

I sighed:" What do you even plan to do with this. Don´t tell me you know how to use this."

"Actually..."

Shiro now came a little closer to me and showed me the content of the green, little container.

"What´s that?", I simply asked.

Shiro took some steps back and proudly said: "A mixture of water, ink and that thing called soap."

I raised an eyebrow, being clearly confused: "O...kay.. And what do you plan to do with this?"

He grinned at me: "Just watch and be astonished!"

Shiro now put the stick with the hole in it into the container, pulled it back outside and blew some air into the hole. What happened next did indeed astonish me. Out of the hole came out colourful, somewhat invisible balls, glittering brightly in the moonlight.

"They kind of remind me of the bubbler, so I decided to call them ink bubbles."

Still in awe, I answered: "But.. How did you know..?"

"My brother once told me about them. And as soon as I saw this in the museum, I couldn´t help myself.", Shiro explained.

Enthusiastic I watched the ink bubbles slowly hovering to the sky. It was quite a beautiful view, which I had never experienced before.

"You want to try it out as well?", Shiro´s voice woke me up from my trance.

"Huh?", was the only thing I could manage to say.

I quickly shook my head no. As if I would do such a childish thing in front of him!

"Come on. Don´t pretend like you don´t want to. Here.", the Inklingboy completely ignored my answer and gave me the magical object which was used by a former species.

First I wanted to give it back to him. But then I decided to give it a shot and blew through the little hole. And as before many little ink bubbles were send to the air.

Shiro smiled brightly as he picked up a little stick and said: "Let´s have a little game. It´s you against me. Try to make as many bubbles as you can while I try to destroy them with my stick!"

"What? You want to destroy these beautiful things?", I asked a little shocked.

"Come on. After a while they will burst anyway. So are you ready?"

"But won´t the water hurt us?", I asked.

"Of course not. There is more ink inside it as water. Believe me, we are fine."

Just what the hell was I doing here? I HATED this guy. He was the one who made me suffer on turf war and he was the one who had played a trick on me by kissing me! So why the hell was I out here with him, actually having fun?!

Despite of my thoughts on this situation, I still agreed to play with him. It was quite a mess, all the ink bursting around of us. It even reminded me a little of turf war, but in a different and more harmless way, the amount of ink being that little compared to an actual turf war.

Anyway we played for a long time, until we eventually got out of ink, with the situation ending with us both collapsing on the sand.

"So.. who won?", Shiro asked me, himself being out of breath.

I also panted: "Me, of course!"

"What?"

Suddenly Shiro got up and leaned himself down on me.

He then whispered: "I clearly won this one. I destroyed every single bubble."

Surprised by this sudden closeness between us I simply started to blush, staring directly into his eyes.

A small smile formed on his lips, while his head slowly leaned towards mine, making our noses now touch each others.

"You didn´t change one bit."

"What are you two doing out here?! Get inside this instant!", our teacher cried out suddenly.


	13. Chapter 13 - Curiousity

**Hey there! I´m here with another chapter! YAY!**

 **So first of all I want to answer some questions:**

 **1\. First of all I was asked if I could write from Shiro´s point of view as well sometimes.**

 **-I can in future chapters but not right now since it would spoil a lot of content from the story. Though I plan to write mostly in Suzu´s point of view.**

 **2\. How could have Suzu twisted her ankle since Inklings don´t have any bones?**

 **-Well, in my story they have bones in their humanoid form. Let´s just go with that, okay ;P**

 **Okay.. I think this is all for now.. Enjoy the chapter! And thanks so much for your support! It really motivates me to write more when I read your awsome comments ^^**

* * *

Chapter 13 – Curiousity

We both instantly looked at Mrs. Anderson who had called us from the distance.

"Crap. This means trouble.", the light blue Inklingboy commented while he slowly stood up and offered me his hand.

"What should we do now?!", I asked him with panic in my voice.

When I was finally on my feet as well, Shiro quickly tossed the ink bubble maker into my hands.

"I got a plan. I do the talking while you make sure that she doesn´t find out about this.", he calmly said.

"What?! And what if she still finds out? It was you, who stole this in the first place and I sure as hell don´t want to get into trouble because of YOUR stupidity!", I whined.

"Suzu Hoshino and Shiro Masato, if you don´t come here this instant, I swear I will...!", our teacher again reminded us of her presence.

"Just trust me, you´ll be fine.", the grey eyed Inklingboy said, before he made his way to Mrs. Anderson.

I gulped as I hesitantly followed him, being scared of what would happen next.

"What in squids name were you doing here, this late at night? You two ARE aware that I could simply inform your parents about your actions, aren´t you?", Mrs. Anderson started as soon as we had reached her.

"I´m sorry madame, but I was looking for something I had lost back in the afternoon. Suzu here just happened to see me while she was on her way to the bathroom. So she isn´t to blame for this situation at all, since she only got worried about what I was up to.", Shiro simply explained this, like he had already known that our teacher would eventually show up.

"And this couldn´t wait until tomorrow?"

"Since we were about to check out that early in the morning, I figured it would be too late by then."

I must say, I was really impressed by Shiro´s gift of finding fitting excuses.

Our teacher sighed:" I see. But this is still against the school rules so you have to understand this can´t go unpunished."

"So what should I´ve done instead? I assume you would have had a better solution than mine?"

"Well, you could have asked me for help for example."

"I understand."

Firmly hiding the ink bubble maker behind my back, I shook my head no and complained:" Mrs. Anderson, please don´t call Shiro´s parents. I know what we did was against the rules, but there must be another solution for us"

"Suzu, don´t worry. Nothing of this is your concern, since..", Shiro again tried to rescue me from this situation.

"No Shiro, it is! I also broke the rules wether it was unintentional or not! So I should also be punished!", I argued.

"Suzu, are you..?!", the light blue Inklingboy wanted to complain again, but was cut short by our teacher.

"She is right. Don´t worry though. I will find a solution which we can all live with, okay? Just return to your rooms for now. It´s still late after all.

With no further discussions, the Inklingboy and me went back to our own hotelrooms. Though Shiro seemed really angry at me for throwing myself into trouble like that, I still was glad about what I had done. True, Shiro had been the one who had broken the rules first, by being outside that late at night, but I hadn´t been out to go to the bathroom but to go for a walk by myself. So of course it would have been really unfair only for him to get punished. This was about being out at night and not stealing stuff from the museum. So it was only natural for me to not let him have that punishment on his own.

As I opened the door to my hotelroom, I was really glad to see Mari being still asleep. Mari asking tons of questions about my where abouts was the least thing I wanted right now. Relieved I headed straight to my bed and tried to get at least some sleep. But my efforts were in vain because all I could think of was the time I had spend with the bright blue Inklingboy this night. It seemed like he is really an okay squid, since I had a ton of fun with him. Of course that didn´t mean that I all of a sudden have changed my mind about him. He was still mysterious to an extend. I mean, I still had so many questions to ask him like why he had kissed me, why he was being nice to me and wether he was a playsquid or not.. But I would lie if I would say that I wasn´t at least a little bit curious about his character..

* * *

After I had packed all my stuff into my bag and had changed to my new red-white hoodie, I went straight to the bus and seated myself on one of the seats located on the front. Of course Mari was the one who sat next to me, but I was too tired to pay any attention to her, since I leaned my head on the cold window and tried to get some slumber. Some time had passed until a loud voice woke me up again.

"And to the left we can see an old building which was built by the former species who had lived here before us. It is said that they used this building in some kind of way to be able to see the stars and planets from a closer perspective, though it is unknown how they really managed to do so. Sadly these are just rumours and can´t be proved since the ruins of this building are all, what have been left.", our teacher explained.

"Can´t we do a little stop here? I would like to take a closer look on these ruins..", a familiar voice commented from behind.

Soon after his comment, other students wanted to take a break as well. So our pink coloured teacher finally had to give in and we did indeed make a break near the old ruins.

"Wow, this looks really tasty Mari. Can´t you share a bit with me?", Lukas commented on Mari´s Lunch box.

"Of course it does. I made it myself after all. And no, I won´t share it with you! But if Shiro happens to want something, this would be a whole different story..", the blue Inklinggirl started to blush.

"Eh? Why Shiro and not me?! What makes him so special?", Lukas whined at her statement.

"A lot of things! He is fresh, intelligent, kind and really handsome!", she squeeled.

"So am I! Now gimme!", the green Inklingboy started to "fight" with Mari for the food.

Since the both of them looked really busy, my eyes searched for a certain Inklingboy who was nowhere to be found. Truly curious about what the squid-kid was up to, I went closer to the ruins because I figured it was him who had asked for this break in the first place.

After some climbing I indeed found the Inklingboy, positioned in the middle of the former building, holding a camera in his hands.

"Hey bro, can you guess where I am? I am investigating the ruins of a former building which was used to see stars and planets in a closer perspective by the former species of planet earth. I bet you are jalouse now!", Shiro talked to the camera.

I sat down on some of the ruins and watched his monologue from above and after some time I couldn´t help myself but laugh out loud. Of course this drew his attention fully to myself.

"Oh, hello there squid-chan. Came to join my little investigation?", he jokingly asked, the camera still pointed to himself.

I jumped off my seat and now stood right in front of him:" Just what are you doing here, talking by yourself?"

Shiro shrugged:" Recording my report to my brother. It´s a good exercise since this is what I want to do in the future. And by doing this, I´m sure I can help out my bro as well. It is his hobby to investigate and recreate things from the former species after all."

I raised an eyebrow at that. So Shiro wants to become a reporter?

I grinned and teased him by saying:" I see. Of course a playsquid would like to become a reporter so he could spend more time with Callie and Marie."

"Or I could spend more time with the talented Suzu by reporting all her victories in turf war and ranked battles.", he smirked at me.

I was speechless at this and turned red like a tomatoe.

"I mean, this is your dream right? To become the best warrior in turf war?"

I shyly nodded at this.

After that it got quiet between us. So to fight the awkwardness of this situation, Shiro moved closer to me, put his left arm around my shoulder and dragged me to himself, pointing the camera directly on us both.

"Hey bro, look who I´ve found! You still remember her, right?", he said as he only dragged me closer to him, making our cheeks touch.

Wait.. Remember me?

Confused I looked up to Shiro, who still grinned like an idiot into the camera, when suddenly someone called us.

"All alone again, I see! I hate to interrupt you love-squids, but our bus is leaving!", Lukas called after us while Mari stood beside him, giving me an annoyed look.

Embarassed I pushed Shiro away from me and headed straight to the bus.

After Mari planted herself next to my seat, she asked:" Hey.. There is nothing going on between you two... Right?"

I almost jumped out of my seat because of her odd comment:" What? Between who?"

"Between Shiro and you.."

"No! Of course not! He just wandered off so I wondered what he was up to, that´s all! Pff.. as if I would fall for him or something.."

"Hmmm..", was all Mari had to say after that.

I knew that she didn´t believe me. But I was truly just curious about him...

Right?


	14. Chapter 14 - Girls night!

**Hey guys! I´m so sorry that it took so long, but Life Is Strange Finale happened and I´m still not okay! Anyway, here´s another chapter for you! I´m pretty tired so I will leave it at that. Mistakes I made in this chapter will be corrected later... Have fun!**

* * *

Chapter 14 – Girls night!

A big sigh escaped my lips, while I walked to the center of Inkopolis City. As soon as I had gotten home from my little school trip, I had gone straight upstairs to my room and straight into bed. I was literally wrecked but after a couple of minutes of silence, my squidphone immediately started to ring. Of course Sakura was the one calling, because she wanted to hear every single detail about my little trip. So yeah, long story short my best friend kind of forced me into meeting her right now.

As soon as I finally got to our meeting spot, the pink Inklinggirl rushed towards me and rapidly hugged the hell out of me.

"Ugh.. I´m so tired! Couldn´t this wait until tomorrow?", I whined.

"Are you serious right now? Girllll ~ You went on a vacation with a boy who might like you! Hello? Of course this can´t wait! So spill the ink already!", Sakura lightly hit me on my arm while saying this.

I scratched my head:" There isn´t really much to tell. I went to school, like super early. Then we drove to our hotel. After that we went to a museum, walked around the sideseas and went to bed."

"Boriiiiing! I need details and pronto."

I started to blush:" Alright.. Fine.."

So with that I told her every little detail what had happened between the bright blue Inklingboy and me, starting with the weird conversation in front of the school gates and ending with the incident with his camera.

"Not much to tell!? Are you squidding me?"

"Alright, alright. Some things did happen...", I shyly admitted.

My friend gave me a knowing grin:" So what do you plan to do? I mean, after what you told me, I don´t really think that he is playing you anymore. Maybe he knows you from the past or something like that?"

"No, I don´t think so.. I would´ve recognized him. But maybe I do know his brother.. He said to the camera 'Do you remember her?' after all..", I said my thoughts out loud.

"And again I have to ask you what you plan on doing with this kind of relationship. Girl, he is obviously flirting with you!"

I shrugged at this:" Maybe I misjudged him. Who knows? One day we might be friends instead of rivals."

After I said this, Sakura looked pretty dumbfounded.

"W.. What? Did I say something wrong?", I asked confused.

The pink coloured Inklinggirl just facepalmed herself and answered:" Sure. A friendship with making a lot of baby squiddies sounds fun."

"B...Baby squiddies? Are you nuts?! Only because he is flirting with me doesn´t mean that I would...", my face turned beet red. "Sure, he is kind of nice and I am curious about him, but I am not in love with him or something!"

"Sure you aren´t..", my friend´s grin only got bigger.

Before I could say anything about this, another Inkling interrupted me by saying:" I´m sorry, but I´m on Suzu´s side. This guy seems pretty keen, not to say that you should watch out after Inklingboys in general.."

I immediately turned my head to the voice´s direction, only to be greeted by a familiar cute face.

"Tsubasa? But what are you doing here?!", I almost screamed in surprise.

"Hey there. Oh nothing, just making my daily rounds in turf war.", she gave me a smile.

Because Sakura looked pretty confused, I first had to introduce them to each other. After some words here and some words there, the three of us landed inside of a café, talking throughly about my 'love life', wether I wanted to or not.

"I don´t know.. The more I learn about this guy, the more I dislike him. And he seems kind of mean..", Tsubasa commented.

"Mean? Why that? He was nothing but kind to me the whole time.", I argued.

"Well, he obviously knows how important it is to you to win in turf war. So why the heck does he always beat you? If he liked you, wouldn´t he, you know? Let you win? Only to make you happy?"

"Excuse me, but I don´t see why a guy who beats you in turf war fair and square is mean. He is obviously just better than Suzu and I don´t think that our girl would like him to let her win, am I right?", Sakura replied.

"Thanks for rubbing it in, Sakura. But yes, I do agree. I wouldn´t want to win like that.."

"But still.. What I´m saying is that you should be careful nevertheless.", the blue Inklinggirl pouted.

I patted her head, saying:" As I said, I am NOT interested in him like that."

My best friend didn´t believe my words anyway, but luckily this conversation finally found an end and we spend the rest of the afternoon with getting to know each other better. Not so luckily though, instead of finally going home to get some rest, my friends dragged me to go to some place in the late evening. It was some kind of an restaurante, where you could get anything you want. From eating dinner there to simply drink some cocktails, this place offered everything you´d want. That´s why it was so popular among older and younger Inklings, I guess.

So instead of sitting in the café, me and my friends now sat around a table, waiting for our non alcoholic ink cocktails to arrive.

While waiting, I used the time to actually look around this place. It was pretty dark in here, with only a few red lights flashing now and then through the room. The restaurante also had a little dancefloor, where younger Inklings were dancing at their heart´s content. When my brown eyes specifically scanned the dancefloor, my gaze immediately hit his. There he was, the topic of the day dancing with another Inklinggirl. As soon as I realized what I was seeing right now, I immediately felt a sharp sting in my heart. Different emotions ran through my veins at this very moment, some of them wanted my eyes to fill with tears and others wanted me to rush over to that son of a squid and beat the hell out of him!

"Suzu? Is everything okay?", Tsubasa asked, while shaking my left shoulder at the same time.

I snapped out of my confused trance and answered bitterly:" He´s here. Dancing with another girl."

"Who? That Shiro guy? Where is he?", Sakura asked calmly.

I pointed to the direction where the two of them were dancing.

"Hey, Shiro Masato! Over here!", Sakura started to scream.

My eyes grew bigger when I realized what was going on. As soon as my brain reacted, I halfly stood up from my seat to be able to shake my friend by her shoulders, reluctantly screaming:" Are you crazy?! You can´t just call him over here?! What do you think you´re doing?!"

But it was too late. A little bit surprised, Shiro still saw Sakura waving him over, so he and his partner made their way to us. However his surprised face was soon replaced with a smile on his face as soon as he had spotted me.

"Suzu! I didn´t think I would meet you at a place like this."

"Yeah, I see that..", I responded coldly, while eying a certain someone who stood next to him.

 _Why did I act like this?_

Shiro must have noticed my glance, since he answered:" Oh, may I introduce you to Genevieve. She ´s an old childhood friend of mine. We lived in the same town until I moved back here." He now turned to his friend and lightly hit her arm:" I still can´t believe that you also moved to Inkopolis!"

In return the purple coloured Inklinggirl gave him a sweet smile. So sweet that it made me want to puke.

 _Why did I think like that?_

"Why don´t you two join us? My name is Sakura by the way and that is Tsubasa. We´re friends of Suzu."

While me and Tsubasa glared at her, Shiro and Genevieve seated themselves next to us. So Tsubasa me and Shiro´s friend sat next to each other, while Sakura and Shiro sat opposite of us, making me look straight at Shiro. GREAT! Shiro immediately flashed me a smile, so in order to get out of this awkwardness, I fastly changed the topic.

"So, ummm.."

"You may call me Gini.", Gini smiled.

"You two are childhood friends, Gini?"

"Yes, after Shiro and his family moved to New Ink, we soon became friends. We also went to school together, until he had to move back. But we were inseperable, right?"

 _Did she just give me an evil smile, or was it my imagination?_

"Well, I wouldn´t call it like that..", Shiro scratched his head.

"Oh, don´t be so modest, Shi-chan! Anyway, as I wanted to go to a certain school nearby, I figured that it would be the best to move here as well. So yeah, here I am, showing Shi-chan all the cool places I discovered so far!", the Inklinggirl kind of showed off.

 _They seem to be pretty close.._

After that we were covered in an awkward silence. While I was dumbfounded looking at my hands, Sakura seemed to eye all of us closely.

"So, you know this place?", she suddenly asked.

"Umm, well yeah. I was here once before.."

"Great! So you could easily show me and Tsubasa the way to the toilets, right?"

"Ugh, it´s not so hard to find..."

"Awsome! So could you please lead us the way, we are right behind you!", Cupidgirl said, while jumping out of her seat.

You could see that Tsubasa and Gini followed my best friend unwillingly. But nevertheless they still did what they were told. Even my desperate glares couldn´t stop them now. Awsome. Just awsome. Just what the hell did Sakura think she was doing by leaving me alone with HIM?

Suddenly I kind of got nervous. I knew that he was looking straight at me and still I tried to avoid his gaze..

 _What do you want from me?_

"Hey, why don´t we dance while they are gone?", Shiro asked out of nowhere.

"Huh? Uh.. I don´t think that this is a good idea. I can´t really dance and I don´t want people to make fun of me because of that..", I stumbled.

But Shiro didn´t care. He just took my hand in his and lead me towards the dancefloor.

"Hey! Didn´t you hear what I said?"

"I did and I think that it was nonsense."

As soon as we reached the middle of the room, the Inklingboy started to move his hips in rythm of the song, while moving his arms perfectly to the beat. Slowly my movements matched his, so that we were in fact dancing.

My cheeks lightly blushed, when I said:" Don´t you think that your petite girlfriend will be jealous?"

Shiro grinned:" I don´t have a girlfriend."

"Well, you two seem pretty close to me. Are you sure you want to take the risk?"

Suddenly he moved closer to me, his hands resting on my hips, whispering:" I will take any risk which will bring US closer.."

I gasped at the sudden closeness and his response.

Not knowing what to do myself, I teasingly rested my hands on his chest, whispering as well:" When will you finally stop playing around with me?"

His eyes changed from playful to serious, as his face moved closer to mine, saying:" I never played with you.."

Uncontrollably my eyes slowly began to fall shut, while I started to feel his breath on my lips..

"Shiro! Come on, we have to go!", Gini suddenly shouted out, disturbing our almost second kiss we would have shared.

Reality hit us hard, as we slowly moved away from each other.

Embarassed I looked down at the floor and then again at Shiro who was about to leave.

 _I don´t want you to leave.._

Pretty embarassed himself, Shiro first placed two of his fingers on his mouth, pressing them against his lips, only to use the very same fingers seconds after that on mine, giving me an indirect kiss goodbye.

"See you tomorrow.", He whispered one last time before he went home together with Gini.

My cheeks now being beet red, I kind of stumbled back to my friends.

"Not in love, right?", Sakura beamed in awe.

"Just shut up.."


	15. Chapter 15 - You change me

**Hey guys! Your favourite couple SuzuXShiro is back! So I plan to update this story regularly. If I can´t upload a chapter per week, I will update this story every second week. So in one week I will update this story and the next I will update my Life Is Strange story. This way you know when to expect another chapter and I think this solution isn´t so bad for now, is it?**

 **I also would like to thank you guys for over 15000 views T.T This means really a lot to me and makes me happy, that you still like this story!**

 **Anyway, have fun with this chapter ^^ Until next time!**

* * *

Chapter 15 – You change me

Full of exitement I placed my bag near my desk and started to prepare our classroom for the day. Even though I didn´t sleep that much last night, I was wide awake. I found that pretty odd to be honest and also the fact that I was being nervous for no reason, made me feel a little bit worried. At that time, I didn´t understand why I was feeling like that..

Anyway today it was my turn to clean the classroom and to take care of the plants we had in class, so logically I was the only and also first person in our classroom. When I was done with sweeping the floor, I filled a little watering can with water and made my way to the windowsill where all the plants were placed. Ready to do my last task for the day, suddenly another student arrived. Pretty surprised by the early squid, I turned myself around to find a tired looking Shiro, lazily waving his right hand at me. Immediately I turned beet red, so in order to hide my face from him I quickly turned around again.

 _Of course it had to be him! What the squid was he doing here so early in the morning?!_

"M.. Morning. A little bit early for you to be here, isn´t it? I thought you didn´t like to get up early?", I stumbled.

"Hah. So you noticed that I lied to you the other day?", he simply said.

I didn´t really know what to say at that, so I remained quiet.

"Do you.. umm.. need some help?"

"No. I´m pretty much done with my chores."

When I was done watering the plants, I turned myself around to bring the watering can back to it´s place, but was interrupted by Shiro standing right in front of me.

"You aren´t mad at me.. You know.. Because of yesterday, are you?", he asked while scratching the back of his head and looking away from me.

"No.. Why should I be?", I asked confused.

As the Inklingboy finally turned to face me, another student opened the door to our classroom.

"Awww, interrupting the love squids again! I´m sorry!", Lukas beamed.

Shiro grinned at him:" Are you jealous or are you doing this on purpose?"

"Of course I´m jealous! Everyone acts so lovey dovey around me and Mari still ignores me.."

I raised an eyebrow at that:" You like Mari?"

Lukas sat down on his chair:" Well duh! But I know she´s all over Shiro.."

"You don´t have to be worried. I´m not interested in her.", Shiro simply stated.

"Obviously.", Lukas grinned back at him.

That statement made me look at Shiro. So maybe he was interested in me?

Not long after this, all our other classmates arrived one by another, so I hadn´t really the chance to talk to Shiro again. So I sat myself down on my chair, waiting for the teacher to arrive.

Mrs. Anderson of course arrived in time and soon she began with the lectures. But before she did that, she had to announce something special.

"Good morning everyone. Before we start I would like to talk about something important. As you all know, you´ll get a new teacher called Mr. Squiddle for history class, so I thought it would be nice of you, if our class would prepare a little welcome party for him."

Every single student groaned at that.

"Luckily two students already told me that they would love to organize everything for the party. So once again I would like to give my thanks to Shiro and Suzu.", our teacher smiled brightly.

My eyes grew bigger at that sudden announcement. I sure as hell didn´t remember to volunteer in such a matter! Shiro seemed to think likewise, since he raised his voice to protest, but as soon as his voice came out of his mouth, our teacher shot a death glare at the both of us. Finally I realized that this was our punishment for breaking the rules at our little trip, so we hadn´t really a choice in this matter, or had we?

* * *

So after school me and Shiro had to stay longer in order to organize the little party for our new teacher. In order to be able to talk better, we moved our desks closer, so we could face each other while we would discuss the matter.

"Great. Now do you have any ideas?", Shiro asked a little bit annoyed about our punishment.

"Hey, don´t give me that look! It was your fault that we got caught in the first place!", I argued.

"Well, I didn´t ask you to defend me in front of the teacher."

I sighed in defeat:" Let´s just hurry up, so we can go home as soon as possible.. So obviously we will hold this party in our gym, since there is plenty of room for such an occasion. The fact that we should offer some food is pretty obvious as well, so I guess we should ask some of our classmates if they could bake something.. Or bring coffee or something like that.."

"What else?"

"I don´t know! Don´t you have any ideas on your own?", I hissed.

"Whoa, calm down.. Maybe we should play some music?"

"Maybe.. But there´s something missing.."

"Like what?"

"I don´t know.. I can´t put my finger on it.. But something special is missing.."

"Perhaps we could offer some splatter shots? Ink is always good."

"If we would do that, it will get pretty messy..", I commented.

We sat there in silence for a while, when suddenly Shiro came up with an idea.

"I think I have an idea!", he beamed.

"Okay. Out with it."

But Shiro didn´t answer me. Instead he jumped from his seat and took his jacket.

"What are you doing?", I asked confused.

"My brother invented something pretty cool we could use. Well, he didn´t invent it because the former species who lived here also had something like that, but I think you will like it!"

"Umm, okay?"

"But in order to get it, we have to go to the town center. Are you coming?"

Still confused, I also grabbed my jacked and followed Shiro to the center of Inkopolis.

* * *

"Where are we going?"

"To the studio.", he simply said.

"The one where Callie and Marie work?", I blinked.

"That´s right. My brother works with them and he invented that thing so they could use it on the upcomming splatfest."

"But it´s already eight pm! I doubt that they still work at this hour..", I argued.

"So?"

"Umm, we can´t ask for permission?"

"I don´t want to ask for permission."

I immediately stopped in my tracks, almost screaming:" You want to break in?!"

Quickly Shiro put his hand on my mouth:" Geeze Suzu, can´t you be a little louder?"

I pushed his hand away from me:" Are you crazy?! We can´t just steal from them! We will go to prison! I already got in trouble because of you, too! Didn´t you learn your lesson?!"

"I´m not stealing. I´m just borrowing a few things of them.", Shiro said calmly.

"Yeah, like that bubble maker, which I still have by the way!"

"Great! That means we can play with it again someday!"

I blushed at that.

We finally reached the entrance of the studio.

"Can you give me your hairclip?"

"You are serious, aren´t you?"

"You don´t have to go, if you don´t want to. But you seriously don´t have to worry. I know what I´m doing. It´s not like it is my first time."

"You´ve already done this?!"

"Just to watch them filming stuff.. You know.. in order for me to learn something from them."

I just looked at him with wide eyes. I sure as hell didn´t expect Shiro to do forbidden stuff like this. Sure, he did steal that bubble maker and according to him he isn´t stealing stuff from the Squid Sisters, but still..

Shiro just rolled his eyes and opened the door without my hairclip.

"So some of them are still working.. Better for us, I guess."

I stopped him from going inside by placing my hand on his shoulder.

"We can´t just walk in! This is forbidden Shiro! I don´t want you or me to get into any trouble!", I looked at him with a serious face.

Shiro gave me a smile:" They just don´t have to see us. You trust me, right?"

I didn´t want to do this. My mother didn´t raise me to do forbidden stuff like this! I was supposed to be the perfect Inklinggirl who obeyed the rules without questions.. But I went in with him. I don´t know why. I was scared to death. But I still followed the Inklingboy, him grabbing my hand in his.

So we both went inside the studio, being really careful to not be seen by anybody. We stopped in our tracks when we had reached a little room, where the stuff which Shiro had seaked was stored. He stuffed some of the colorful painted sticks, which looked a little bit like packaged candy, into his bag and after that we made our way back to the entrance. That was until we heard footsteps, coming dangerously near us.

Shiro practically shoved me into a corner, so the other person wouldn´t see us, making him standing dangerously near me. My heart was beating so fast and I couldn´t help but look at his face, while he looked after the other person. His face was so close to mine!

 _Maybe I could.._

"Hello? Is anybody here?", Marie asked.

We tried to be as quiet as possible and not to move an inch.

"What are you doing hun? Let´s go home!", Callie said.

"I swear, I heard something.."

"Come on, it´s only the two of us silly. You promised to cook dinner tonight, so hurry.."

"If you say so.."

We stood there in silence for a little bit longer, just to be sure not to get caught.

"That was close..", Shiro said, while turning his face to me, only to be greeted by my beet red face, inches apart from his own.

As he could read my mind, he slowly bend his head down, placing his lips on mine. My eyes falling shut, it felt like an eternity until our lips parted again, making us move back to the outside.


	16. Chapter 16 - Inkworks

**YES, I am not dead, so isn´t this story, the chapter is kind of short but I hope you´ll enjoy it anyway ~**

* * *

Chapter 16 - Inkworks

„That was close..", Shiro said while turning his face to look directly at me.

As his gaze met mine, his expression immediately went from relieved to shocked since he had realized how close we actually were and how red my cheeks were. In a matter of seconds his eyelids were about to close and I could practically feel how the mood between us changed into a passionate one. It felt like the Inklingboy had read my mind when he bend his head down to lock our lips. I didn´t care how long we stood there. I just enjoyed his warm lips, being pushed against mine. Too soon for my likes he pulled away from me, his cheeks being red as my own.

Quickly he looked in another direction and said: "We should probably get out of here."

And with that he put my hand into his and guided me outside. As we finally reached the center of Inkopolis city again, Shiro turned around to face me with a wide grin plastered on his face.

"So, care to look what I borrowed from the Squid Sisters?", he asked while waving the coloured sticks in his hands.

As fast as I could I shoved my hand on his mouth: "Can´t you be a little louder? I think the Squid Officer didn´t quite hear you!"

Shiro laughed: "Relax, we are the only Inklings out here."

I took a moment and looked around me. Shiro was right. It was the middle of the night and I couldn´t think of any time in which I had experienced Inkopolis City being so quite and deserted. It was a little creepy to be honest, but also very romantic since we were all alone here..

I quickly shook my head and said: "So what´s so special about these sticks?"

Shiro´s grin only became wider: "Be ready to be impressed."

With that said he took a green coloured stick and placed it on the ground. He then pulled a lighter out of his pocket and lit the very end of the stick. After his job was done he approached me and made me step a little back. Curious of what would happen next, I eagerly watched the now burning stick. After a few seconds had passed a squeaky sound could be heard. In shock I covered my eyes but Shiro took my head in his hands and directed me to look directly at the sky. After the ear ringing sound a loud bang followed and in the middle of the sky appeared a beautiful flower shaped like, green colour. A green, glittery explosion happened on the night sky, to be more explicit.

Not only the explosion above me glittered but my eyes which were in awe did the very same.

Sadly that little spectacle only took a few seconds to fade away, so very exited I turned to look at Shiro and shook him eagerly: "Oh my god! What was that! Do it again? Pretty please?!"

As quick as I had said that I quickly realized how childish I just had behaved.

So as realization hit me, I dropped my hands off of him and said in a more classic tone: "Of course only if it isn´t too much of work for you. It is pretty late and that thing is very loud.."

Shiro chuckled to himself but nevertheless lit another of those coloured sticks, only to cause it to have the same reaction as the one before.

"Just what is this? Magic?", I watched the second explosion in awe.

"Actually it´s ink."

I turned to face Shiro: "What? But won´t it spread all over the city while exploding?"

"No because it´s so heated that it kind of melts during the process. My brother invented this, calling it Inkworks. Once again he got inspired by the human species who had lived here before us.", he proudly said.

"Inkworks..", I smiled to myself while Shiro was about to light a bunch of other different coloured sticks.


	17. Chapter 17 - Confessions

**Fangirls and Fanboys! Grab some popcorn and be ready to fangirl and cry your hearts out of your souls!**

 **I hope you enjoy this chapter ;)**

* * *

Chapter 17 – Confessions

„So, what do you think? Will these Inkworks make the welcome party for our new teacher special, or what?", Shiro asked me, being very exited.

„Are you squidding me? They are perfect! But didn´t you use all of them just now? I mean, we certainly can´t ´borrow´ more of them.."

The blue Inklingboy flashed me a smile: "Don´t worry. I´m sure my brother will be flattered to help us out, since the Squid Sisters didn´t approve of his invention yet.."

I raised a curious eyebrow at that: "So it´s not sure if Callie and Marie will use them for the upcoming splatfest?"

"Not yet.. But I´m sure they will."

"They have to! They look so pretty and would be perfect for an occasion like this. They simply HAVE to approve of your brother´s brilliant invention!", I overreacted a little bit.

Shiro scratched the back of his head: "Hey, If you really feel that way, why don´t you come over to my place tomorrow, so you could tell him this yourself. Shota has been kind of down lately, so surely you would cheer him up."

I blushed at the thought of visiting Shiro´s house but responded anyway: "Are you sure this is okay?"

"Why not? Aren´t you free after school?"

"I am!..", I hesitated at first and played with my hands when I finally said: "Never mind. So it´s a date then?"

The male Inkling looked very surprised by my answer. At first I didn´t understand his reaction, when I finally realized what I had actually said.

With a burning sensation in my cheeks, I quickly corrected myself: "Not like that, you idiot! What I obviously meant is that I will certainly visit you after school to get the preparations for the welcome party done!"

"Aw, too bad.. And I thought that you finally admitted to yourself, that you have a huge crush on me."

My eyes widened at that: "What?! Who said that I liked you that way!?"

Shiro smirked at that: "Then why did we kiss a few minutes ago.. And what about yesterday? And the day..."

I hit his shoulder: "Because you keep kissing me, of course!"

Suddenly the grey eyed Inkling stepped closer to me, put his hands on my shoulders and looked deeply in my eyes.

With his head bowing slowly down, he said: "So you say that you didn´t want to kiss me?"

"I.."

"Then why did you kiss back, every single time?"

"Because.."

He brushed his right fingertip over my lips, saying: "And what about you, looking longingly at me, begging for our lips to finally meet?"

"Enough!", I shouted at him while hardly pushing him away from me.

"So are you saying that I was right the whole time? That you actually ARE a Playsquid?.."

My voice cracked a little bit: "So you did this to prove a point? To show me that you can seduce any girl you want? If that´s so.. Was it fun to play with my feelings?"

With an honest and serious facial expression Shiro answered: "What I´m saying is that I love you. I always have and I never played you. Why are you always thinking that I´m a Playsquid? Is it so hard to believe that I actually like you?"

I didn´t expect to get this as an answer of him. I really thought that he only..

"Well, yes. From the very first time we´ve met, you´ve been always kind and nice to me. You were always flirting with me. And don´t tell me that it was love at first sight. I don´t believe in such crap.. So why..", I tried to explain myself when Shiro interrupted me.

"It wasn´t."

"Then since when..?"

Once again he put one hand on my left shoulder: "Look. I will explain everything tomorrow, okay? I think everything will be clear when you visit me after school.."

As he had said that, I was more confused about this boy than ever. But at the end I agreed to his request and soon after, we both went our separate ways. This didn´t mean that this crazy day couldn´t get absurder though...

As I made my way to my home, I found Tsubasa on the middle of my way. She just stood there, looking down at the floor.

Surprised I slowly approached her: "Tsubasa? What are you doing here so late at night? Did something happen? You kind of look down.."

With sad eyes indeed, she finally raised her head to look at me. I could tell that her eyes were puffy from probably crying a lot.

"Oh god. What´s wrong?", I rubbed her arm to comfort her.

My friend cracked a fake, sad smile at me: "So, I guess you are dating that Shiro guy now? You know, I saw you guys in the studio..", her voice sounded bitter now: "Kissing again.."

Again I felt the heat rising in my body, but this time from embarrassment: "You saw us? Oh god, this is soo.."

"I thought this guy was a Playsquid? So why are you doing this to yourself? Can´t you see that he´ll only hurt you?"

I was confused: "Wait.. Were you crying because of this? Tsubasa, you don´t have to worry so much about me. That´s really cute but..", I was cut short by something really smooth being pressed on my lips.

First I couldn´t really progress what was preventing me to finish my sentence. But after some seconds I finally noticed Tsubasa´s face being really close to mine and our lips being locked together. My eyes grew wider at this, but this didn´t prevent my friend from passionately cupping my face into her hands. I wanted to push her away from me. But I immediately stopped in my tracks once I saw the tears streaming down the Inklinggirl´s cheeks. A few moments later she stepped a few steps back.

"Why him and not me? He´ll only hurt you and still you chose him.."

Shocked I placed a hand on my lips, still feeling the warmth of the lips of my friends: "Tsubasa.. I didn´t know.."

"Is it because I am a girl?"

"No!"

The light blue coloured Inklinggirl smiled bitterly: "Of course it is. It always is.."

I didn´t know what to say to her.

 _´Say something´_ , my brain screamed at me.

"Farewell.", her last words still ringed in my head, while she had already left a quite while ago...


	18. Chapter 18 - Familiar atmosphere

Chapter 18 – Familiar atmosphere

The next day practically rushed past me. Last night I couldn´t sleep at all. I mean first I had gotten a confession from my rival and after that one of my best friends had confessed to me out of nowhere. Never would I had expected Tsubasa having a crush on me. Sure, we got along from the very first day we had met but she having romantic feelings for me? I still had my problems believing that. Because of all that crazy stuff happening around me lately, I barely listened to our teacher´s lectures today as well. So here I was, sitting through my last class lesson, only staring out of the window instead of paying any attention.

I jumped a litle as suddenly someone touched my right shoulder, saying:,, Hey, class is already over. Are you ready for our date?"

I looked up to the Inkling who was apperently talking to me and was immediately greeted by Shiro smirking at me. First shocked about the fact that I was so out of it that I even hadn´t heard the bell ringing, I clumsily gathered all of my stuff and stood up from my seat.

,,Sorry, I haven´t realized that classes were already over. I´m ready to go so lead the way.", I answered.

It didn´t take long for Shiro´s smirk to disappear.

Instead he gave me a concerned look:,, Are you.. alright? You´ve been out of it all day long. Is it because of... yesterday?"

,,Yes.. I mean no! I.. It´s not because of you so don´t worry!"

,,Did something happen?"

I first hesitated and considered telling him the truth. But then again it had nothing to do with him and I wouln´t want to talk with Shiro about my friend who he barely even knew.

,,As I said, don´t worry about it! Lead the way!", I forced myself to smile at him.

Luckily he let the topic go and led me to his house. It was a big, grey coloured building with a beautiful garden in the backyard. The garden itself had many, different kinds of flowers planted there. There were also some apple trees growing there and on the wooden floor, which was located in front of the back entrance, there stood a big wooden table and some chairs. I couldn´t help myself, but felt immediately at home. I wasn´t so sure myself why this was the case though.

Instead of taking the front door, Shiro led me through the back door. The house itself contained of wooden furniture and decorations only, with a few ink coloured paintings and pictures being the exception.

,,Brother! I´m home!", Shiro shouted through the building.

Shortly after, the door which obviously led to the garage opened and a bright blue, young Inklingman who was covered in different colours showed up in front of us.

,,Shiro, you´re early. Not hanging with your friends today?"

He then must have spotted me, since he quickly grabbed a towel and cleaned his dirty hands with it, stepping forward to greed me at the same time.

,,Woooooomy ~ I see how it is. So you bringing your girlfriend home?"

Shiro responded by hitting the man playfully on the arm:,, Come on, brother. Don´t tell me that you don´t recognize our beloved Suzu."

I blinked at this. Did that mean, that he was a fan of mine or something?

Shota´s eyes though widened in shock and in surprise and at the exact moment, he pulled me into a deep hug. I wanted to complain about the sudden contact, but was so surprised by the action, that I didn´t dare to move.

,,Suzu! Is this really you? It has been so long.."


	19. Chapter 19 - Childhood friends!

**Hey! First of all I wanted to apologize for my long hiatus and for the short chapter, which I posted yesterday. Yes, it was kind of rushed but I didn´t want you guys to wait any longer. So I really want to finally wrap this story up (it´s far from completion) that´s why I plan to release more chapters more often. So this is the reason why you get another chapter today as well ^^ I will try to post the next chapter tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, we´ll see. But I won´t go on a hiatus that long again, promise!**

 **Here´s a little bio for our new character Shota!**

 **Name: Shota Masato**

 **Age: 24**

 **Colour: Bright blue like his younger brother Shiro (eye colour: brown)**

 **Personality: Teasing, often overreacting but caring**

 **Deeply in love with: Marie (One of the Squid Sisters)**

 **His best friend: Callie (One of the Squid Sisters)**

 **So I deeply hope that you´ll forgive my absence and enjoy this chapter :)**

* * *

Chapter 19 – Childhood friends?!

First I was so surprised by the sudden bodycontact, that I just stood there, frozen in place. But after some seconds had passed, I quickly came back to my senses and lightly pushed the adult Inkling away from me.

Not trying to sound rude, I stuttered at the same time:,, Whoa, keep your tentacles to yourself, mister.."

Chuckling, the guy stepped one step back, still holding my shoulders with his hands though:,, You´re right. Sorry for my sudden outburst, little squidcake. But holy squid, you´ve grown since we´ve last met!"

I raised an eyebrow at that:,, Since we last met?"

,,Yeah, I know it has been ages since we´ve moved away. I would have never guessed that you and your family still lived here since your big daddy was more the nature guy. Speaking of which, how´s he been?"

I gulped at that, looking instantly at the floor. At the corner of my eye, I could see that even Shiro´s facial expression changed from cheery into worried.

,,Hey.. Did I say something wrong, little squidcake?", Shota said with a calmer voice while his grip on my shoulders finally had ligthen up.

Still confused about the whole situation, I still answered:,, My father died a few years ago."

It was then when Shota finally let go of my shoulders completely, being hit by shock I assumed.

,,I.. I´m sorry, squidcake.. I.. I didn´t know.. How..?"

,,Who are you anyway?", I hissed. ,,Would you finally explain what is going on here, Shiro?", I looked directly at him now.

,,I.. uh.. yeah.. Of course. You see, Shota, my parents and me lived here before, in this house, I mean.. Long before your dad had died, I guess.. Our parents were kind of befriended and that makes us three childhood friends."

,,Childhood friends..?", I repeated his words like I hadn´t quite understood what he had just said to me.

,,Wait a minute. So you´re saying, that you don´t remember us?", Shota was stunned now.

,,I don´t."

After a while, the blue, young adult chuckled again, saying:,, Well, I suppose it makes sense. You were a little, cute baby squid after all."

He practically squeeled the last sentence, using his fingers at the same time to pinch one of my cheeks.

,,H..hey! What are you..!", I cried in protest, but unfortunately that didn´t make him stop his actions right away.

,,Well, to make you feel better Suzu, I don´t remember everything as well but only tiny bits, I suppose..", Shiro scratched his head.

As Shota was finally done penetrating my poor, now red coloured cheek, he took me and Shiro in a huge embrace, which was too close for my own comfort, to be honest. In fact, Shota pulled us that close, that my red cheek and Shiro´s right cheek were practically pushed against each other, that hard that it actually hurt a bit.

,,Little squidcake, I´ve known you for soo long, man I even helped your mother to bath you once! And I can still remember clearly how much fun you had, playing with the ink!", the adult Inkling said, pushing me closer to him.

,,You did wha..!", I wanted to cry out of embarassment but was cut short by Shota who started his little speech again.

,,And you, little brother. You were always by Suzu´s side and crying everytime, when the Hoshino´s had to head home again."

It was Shiro now, who seperated us three immediately from each other out of embarassment:,, E..enough brother!"

,,Haha, I´m sorry. I´m getting quite emotional right now.", he chuckled again.

But his cheery mood became serious again, when he asked:,, So how did your father..?"

My gaze wandered towards the ground again:,, He drowned. Mom told me that it happened when he was out with a friend. They were on a trip and my dad had saved his friend who had fallen into the water. His friend made it. He didn´t..."


	20. Chapter 20 - That was you!

**Yay! I managed to write the chapter today, so here you go! I´m kind of getting used to writing again, so this chapter is longer and I´m personally satisfied with it.**

 **Enjoy ^^**

* * *

Chapter 20 – That was you?!

,,So he did die while he had saved his friend´s life?", it was Shiro who asked me this question.

My voice trembled:,, I think so. My mother doesn´t really like to talk about this whole incident. Understandable, I guess. But it has been so sudden for me as well. I was only four years old and didn´t understand where my dad has gone. I still remember a few things of him. Only good things of course. But the fact that we had it very difficult after this is the one thing, that I can remember the clearest of all things."

,,So, you were four when your father died?", Shota asked, behaving very strange all of a sudden.

,,Yes.", I gave him a clear answer.

,,So it must have happened shortly after we had moved away..", Shota mumbled more to himself.

A moment of silence prevailed among us for a while, given the current topic we had discussed.

It was Shota who tried to lighten up the mood a bit by saying:,, Now, now children. Why don´t we use the opportunity to talk about the good old days? I have tons of stories I would like to share with you!"

,,I can imagine..", my light blue coloured friend commented.

,,Maybe another time. Believe it or not but there is actually another reason why I visited you today, umm, Shota."

,,Another reason than just to meet me?"

I gave Shiro a commanding look and luckily he seemed to understand what I wanted him to do.

,,Actually Suzu and me have to organize a welcome party for our new history teacher. And.. there is missing something particular what would make the party more special, you know?", Shiro started to lead the conversation in the right direction.

Shota raised an eyebrow at that:,, And...?"

,,Well, Shiro told me about your new invention. The inkworks would be perfect for such an occassion as this.", I directly asked the question of all questions.

,,You did what?!", the adult Inkling immediately glared at Shiro.

,,Why not? As you see, Suzu approves of your invention so why would other Inklings not? Also, they are not dangerous to use as they are just made of ink.", my friend defended himself.

Shota seemed to think about it for a second as he uncertainly said:,, I don´t know about this. Callie and Marie still didn´t gave me the okay to use them for the upcoming splatfest. Heck, I think they didn´t even test them yet. So why should I illegaly give them to you guys?"

,,Illegaly? Callie and Marie aren´t the law, brother. Besides you know for a fact that Marie didn´t give you the okay yet because she loves to tease you. I´m sure that at the end they will approve of your contribution to the next splatfest.", Shiro reasoned and rolled his eyes everytime he spoke Marie´s name out loud.

Shota sniffed at that:,, Oh Marie. Why won´t you finally return my feelings for you? Didn´t I suffer already enough?"

It was me who raised an eyebrow at this. I quickly glanced at Shiro for an explanation but he only shrugged with his shoulders, so I decided that it was better to not dig in this topic any further and to beg for his assistance instead.

,,I have to agree with Shiro on this one. I have never ever seen something beautiful like this. All the colours were practically shining in the night sky when they were exploding and slowly vanishing with the wind. So it would be perfect for a special celebration like ours. And I´m also sure that the Squid Sisters will see this in a similiar way. I mean inkworks plus splatfest? The perfect combination?"

,,Wait.. You´re saying this like you´ve seen them with your very own eyes..", Shota´s tone became a little deeper and at the same time he quickly glanced at Shiro.

Immediately the flashbacks of Shiro and me ´breaking´ into the Squid Sister´s studio and the kiss we had shared there came back into my memory, so of course a heavy blush was tinted across my cheeks. But the urgency of Shota not finding out about this very incident was more of prime importance than my hormonal feelings right now, so I instantly had to come up with a white lie.

,,What?! No! But Shiro told me extensively about them!"

,,Hmmpf..", was his only response which made me believe that he didn´t buy my sad excuse of a lie.

,,Come on, bro. Don´t be like that..", Shiro tried to beg.

Shota sighed while he massaged his temples at the same time:,, Okay, fine. How can I say no after you´ve praised me so much?"

My worried expression changed into a cheery smile as I heard him saying this. As if we had rehearsed it, Shiro and me screamed the word ´yes´ out loud at the same time and high fived each other.

,,Whoa, hold your tentacles. So how much time do I have to prepare them?"

,,The party takes place on this saturday.", Shiro answered his brother.

,,Today is Tuesday. So that makes three days if you start tomorrow. Is that enough?", I asked back.

,,Hmm, I think it´s makeable."

And with that our preparations for the welcome party were done. Shiro and me had listed every single detail about our plan on a sheet of paper for our teacher Mrs. Anderson to check. Since Shota seemed to have a close relationship with at least one of the Squid Sisters, he even offered to ask Callie to give a little private concert for our little occassion. So after everything was done, my light blue Inklingfriend finally offered to escort me home. I gladly accepted his offer since I didn´t really want to hear another awkward story about our childhood.

,,So.. You were always so kind and nice to me because we were childhood friends. Is that correct?", I started a conversation.

,,Partly."

,,Partly?", I repeated.

,,I told you. Unlike you, I do remember some bits of our shared past."

After some seconds of silence, I asked:,, Like what?"

,,Hmm..", he hummed while he looked at the sky with a small smile. ,,Like the fact that you were and still are my first love.", he now grinned at me.

I lightly hit his shoulder, saying:,, Oh! Now everything makes perfect sense! Really? Are you squidding me? How old were you back then? Like five? How can you talk about love like that?"

,,It´s true, you know. I always was around you back then. You were my very first friend I made besides my brother, of course. I also remember me being sincerely happy, spending time with you. And we shared our first kiss as well!"

,,What? That´s a lie! I know that my first kiss was with someone else.", I insisted.

Sceptically raising an eyebrow at my answer, Shiro asked:,, Oh yes? Who was it?"

My cheeks turned into a light pink tinted colour:,, I don´t remember his name. But it started with the letter G and not S. That´s for sure."

,,Ha, so you do remember!"

,,Remember what?"

,,In the past! You couldn´t pronounce my actual name, so you always used to call me Grey!... Well, you couldn´t pronounce the letter R as well, so that makes it Gey, I think..", my friend exclaimed, being happy that I seemed to remember at least something.

,,Wait.. So that was you? And really? I called you Gay?", I couldn´t help but burst out into laughter. ,,Why would I even call you that?"

,,It was Gey and not Gay! Because of my eye colour, of course!", with that Shiro stopped in his tracks, put his hands on my shoulder and held me closer, to look at his face. ,,Remember?"

I immediately stopped laughing and almost whispered:,, That was really you?"

He flashed a genuine smile at me and nodded.

,,So you were nice to me because of that kiss?"

The Inklingboy chuckled:,, Partly."

,,Again!?"

,,There is actually something else I want to find out as well.. But you already figured out the main reason. It´s because I love you."

I blushed at that cheesy but still sweet comment and stepped some steps back:,, You are still a mistery to me, Shiro Masato, you know that?"

,,As your feelings towards me are a mistery to me.. But don´t worry. I don´t need an answer. Yet.", he said while pointing with his fingers to my back.

I turned around to actually see that we had made it back to my house. So Shiro finally waved to me goodbye and confused as ever I entered my house.

,,I´m home!", I announced my arrival.

,,You´re quite late, honey. Did you hang out with your friends after school?", my mom answered, while she exited the kitchen, holding a cup and a towel in her hands, which made me assume that she was cleaning the dishes.

,,I did."

,,Was it that boy, whom I saw you with from the window?"

,,Yeah, his name is Shiro. Shiro Masato."

As soon as I had mentioned his name, the cup which my mother was holding moments ago, landed flat on the floor.

Quickly I ran over to her, to make sure that she was okay.

,,Mom! Did you hurt yourself?", I asked worried.

,,Did.. Did you say Masato?", my mother quietly whispered.

,,Yes, that´s his name. Oh yeah, you must know him since we´re childhood friends, right?", I bend on my knees to gather all the pieces of the broken cup so nobody would get hurt.

After a short pause my mother spoke again:,, I don´t want you to talk to him anymore."

Assured that I must have misunderstood my mom´s words, I asked:,, Huh?"

,,I don´t want you to ever speak to him again, do you hear me?! It´s his father´s fault, that your father is gone now!", my mother replied by screaming the words out loud with a trembling voice.


	21. Chapter 21 - Conflicted feelings

Chapter 21 – Conflicted feelings

Darkness. That was everything what surrounded me right now. It was Thursday night, two days after the day I had found out that it was the fault of Shiro´s father that my own had to die. Since that very day, I tried to avoid any contact I could get with Shiro in order to respect my mother´s wishes. But.. It hurt.. Mother never went into detail what exactly had happened in the past to cause that terrible incident. So I was only left with my pure imagination about what could have happened. I mean, maybe Shiro´s father had been a member of a dangerous gang who had caused my father trouble? Or had there been a fight between them and Shiro´s dad was actually a serial killer on the run? I shook my head in disagreement. I already was going crazy because of not knowing what had happened. It wasn´t like I didn´t try to get my mother to talk, but she simply refused to tell me any detail and remained stubborn about it.

I sighed in frustration, sat up and looked around my room. Everything was dark, since the lights were off. Every night since that big revealment had been the same. Just me sitting on my bed in complete darkness and leaning against the cold window, thinking about what was right and wrong. All sorts of imaginations ran through my brain. Ridiculous ones but also a lot of questions. Like for example if Shiro and Shota knew about all of this and what their intentions were by getting closer to me. Or could it be that Shiro didn´t know anything? That would explain why he seemed so surprised and confused about me ignoring him at school. I shook my head again, finally layed down and closed my eyes. It didn´t matter. Clearly my mother was troubled by this whole situation and in order to be a good daughter I shouldn´t dig into this matter any further. The only thing I had to do was to forget about the last few weeks and get back to the normal life I had lived for so many years.

,,But why does my heart ache so much by the only thought of it?", I asked myself, while single tears dropped down my cheek, drifting me slowly to sleep.


	22. Chapter 22 - Denial

Chapter 22 – Denial

Today I didn´t want to be at school over time as I usually was, just to prevent being alone with a certain someone, in order not to be asked various questions I couldn´t quite give an answer to. I was certain that by that time of the morning, there should be at least a few inklings who would already wait there for the school day to finally end again. But when I opened the door which lead to our classroom, my heart skipped a beat when my eyes met the one´s which I wanted so badly to avoid today! There he was, the only Inkling in the room who assumingly had cleaning duty today, since he was just about to water the plants.

,,Shoot.. shoot.. shoot! What to do?! What to do?!" , I screamed in my head.

It felt like hours when we just stared at each other.

After an eternity I finally entered the room, put my bag next to my desk and seated myself on my chair. While doing all that, I greeted Shiro with the most normal "Good morning" I could say, just in order not to be impolite. The plan was of course to ignore him the rest of the day just after the greeting, but the gray eyed Inklingboy seemed to have other plans, since he placed the watering can on the floor and shyly approached me.

,,´Morning..", he audible gulped. ,,How are you?"

Silence. Not with me, Masato. I will stick to my plan!

,,Did I.. Ugh.. I know you are mad at me, but I didn´t figure out why yet. So.. Could you please stop giving me the silent treatment and just say what´s wrong?", he said with a clear and determined voice.

Still silence. I mustn´t talk to him!

,,I know if you did something wrong then you should think about your mistake and then apologize and I truly DID think about every single thing I´ve said and done to you, but the last time we said our goodbyes to each other we were in good terms, so can´t you just say what´s both...", Shiro continued almost desperately when he was interrupted by a loud voice.

,,Oh my, the lovesquids are back at it again!", Lukas entered the room, followed by Mari.

Mari answered quite annoyed by that comment:,, Stop calling them that. You´re so childish! And by the way, they aren´t like that at all. You really should buy some glasses, Lukas."

,,Umm, the only one who needs to buy some glasses is you, Mari. But I´m sure you will still look cute with them." The green coloured squid winked at my friend and put an arm around her waist in a flirting gesture. ,,Seems like you´re stuck with me."

Mari on the other hand quickly glanced at Shiros reaction to Lukas closeness with her. In order to prevent Shiro from having any thoughts about Mari being in a relationship with Lukas, she quickly broke the physical contact with him and seated herself quite embarrassed on her chair.

Shiro didn´t seem to care one bit about their relationship though. Instead he was still fixed on me.

And since the two of them seemed to have calmed down again, he tried his luck again by asking:,, Can´t you just tell me what I did wrong?"

,,Hmm? Did something happen?", this caught Lukas attention.

Mari also leaned forward and asked:,, Did you two have a fight?"

,,None of your..", Shiro started but I cut him off by saying:,, Would you please just leave me alone?"

The light blue Inkling was visibly caught off guard by that but quickly recovered.

,,Aww, come on! How long will you play hard to get?! I seriously don´t know what.."

It hurt. It truly did. But I had to.

I looked him directly in the eyes:,, I think you don´t understand. I am not mad at you. I just don´t want to talk or have to do anything with you anymore, understand? So just leave me alone, okay?"

,,Wha.. You can´t be serious! Just tell me...!"

But Shiro never came to finish his sentence since the most of our classmates now stormed into our classroom including our teacher. And that was about the whole contact I had with Shiro that day. Luckily you logically can´t talk to each other during a teaching lesson and during school breaks I made sure to stay busy by for example staying near a teacher, discussing the upcoming festival plans with them.

* * *

When school was finally over, I had been the first who stormed out of class, just to avoid more questions. On my way home I figured I shouldn´t let my mother see me depressed like I was, so I decided to put my aggression into some ranked battles. But why was I so mad in the first place? I made a decision and everything was settled now. I just had to do things like I had done before. Sure the gray eyed Inklingboy had been the first one who had ever flirted with me. Maybe even more than that. But it wasn´t just meant to be. And even if we had been childhood friends. I didn´t even remember one bit of him. So the whole thing with him had been just a summer flirt or something like that, right? I should be able to shake it off! More importantly was clearly my mother who I shouldn´t bother with such trivial things, since she had already enough on her plate.

I shook these thoughts out of my system as I had reached Inkopolis city. I quickly registered myself for the next upcoming battles and threw myself in my usual battle gear and clothes. Neither did I care which map we would play on nor the teammates I had. The only thing that mattered was to distract myself. To get rid of these feelings and frustrations.

Moray Towers and Walleye Warehouse. Not the worst locations to play ranked battles at. The maps weren´t really a problem for me. It was the kind of battle we should play. Rainmaker. I liked the principle to carry the rainmaker to a certain location. The problem however was to HOW to do it. Usually my teammates wouldn´t even care to snatch the Rainmaker. Often they would just care to make many kills or they would even forget about the game´s principle and would colour the turf with their ink instead.

So in this mode I preferred to count mostly only on myself, trying to get the rainmaker as fast as possible and making my way to the enemy's base. And since I was a quick swimmer thanks to the effects on my gear, I planned to stick to my old tactics. What I didn´t know though, was that a very skilled Inklingboy acted as a kind of defense machine. Meaning that he as a sniper guarded their territory quite well. Too well for my liking. In fact he was so good that I had lost every single battle which made me lose my S+ rank !

More frustrated than before I quit playing after losing my rank.

Still in the lobby though, I angrily punched a wall, complaining:,, Are you squiding me?! My S+ rank! You can´t be serious! That.. That!"

,,Yes?"

I quickly turned around to see who answered me, only to see the bright blue Inklingboy who was the cause of my loss. I was furious! At that moment I would have loved to yell the squid out of him!

But I shouldn´t. He won fair and square. And it would have been very impolite as well.

So I brushed all of my emotions aside and answered:,, My apologies. It´s quite frustrating to lose your rank, but I have to admit that you very deserve your victory. Well played."

With that I sucked my pride and offered him a handshake which he accepted.

,,So what is it?", the purple eyed Inklingboy asked.

I raised an eyebrow at that:,, What do you mean?"

,,Why would an elite squid like you play so terribly bad?"

My eyes widened. Did he.. Did that Jerk just insult me?!

,,Pardon?"

,,You heard me right. I would have expected more from the talented and praised Suzu Hoshino."

Stay calm Suzu. He´s not worth it. You must stay calm and handle this situation perfectly. After all you are perfect, right?

,,I´m quite disappointed."

Tears. Tears which I couldn´t stop from streaming down my face. He was right. And I was wrong. I had been a failure in this match. A failure in being a friend or perhaps more.. A failure to myself. I was everything but perfect.

,,Ugh.. Suzu? I am so sorry, I didn´t mean to.."

But I didn´t listen. I just ran. Ran back to the darkness which had become my home..


	23. Chapter 23 - Farewell

Chapter 23 - Farewell

Mari coughed before she started to speak in front of the audience,,: It really is a shame that Mr. Squiddle has to leave us soon. He always made sure that his lessons would be very interesting to attend to. History itself never interested me that much personally, but with his jokes here and there and very good examples in class he rescued me from bad grades."

Some of our classmates laughed at that with Lukas being the loudest of them.

,,I remember when my nose started to bleed for no reason at all and that in the middle of history class. When Suzu reported this to Mr. Squiddle, he seriously asked if we did that on purpose so we could skip classes. Hahaha, I will never forget Suzu´s face when he accused her of punching me."

My whole face started to get tomatoe red.

" _Stupid Mari! Did she really have to tell that story in front of everyone?! So embarrasing!"_

,,These kind of jokes were the key to keep history classes interesting for us. For that, thank you Mr. Squiddle." , Mari ended her little speech.

Everyone clapped as they did for the other speeches. After that a few teachers began to direct a few last words to our history teacher as well. So far the farewell party went very well. There were snacks and drinks, our classmates did an awesome job with the decoration and everyone said something nice to our soon to be ex teacher. However as soon as everyone has said their final words, Mrs Anderson went on the little stage we had build to seemingly announce something. It kind of surprised me because this wasn´t planned at all.

,,Thank you very much. I´m sure Mr. Squiddle must be delighted to have made such a good impression. Now for the grand finale, Suzu and Shiro had planned something very special for you. But for that, I´m afraid we have to leave the gym. So if I may..", with that final statement she made a gesture for us to leave the building.

I started to panic. The inkwork and Callies performance! I totally forgot to set everything up for them. I didn´t even ask Callie if she could do this for us! My gaze rushed from left to right, seeing all of the students and teachers leaving the building, expecting something great to happen. I gulped. I did it again. I forgot something and wasn´t perfect again. Now everyone will be VERY disappointed and point their fingers on me. Like that Squididiot from my last match.. Sweat pearls started to run down my face. I didn´t want to go out as well and look at their sad and confused expressions. But I had to..

Slowly I followed them and made myself ready for anything what would come, tightly closing my eyes for selfprotection.

BOOM!

" _Huh?"_

POOF!

" _What..?"_

I opened my eyes and was greeted with the most beautiful inkworks decorating the nightsky.

" _Shiro.. Did he still..?"_

,,Hello everyone! Are you all fresh tonight?! This song is an extra performance for your beloved Mr. Squiddle. We wish you the best on your following path, good sir!"

I rubbed my eyes. Is Callie really standing in the middle of our sports ground, performing her newest single bomb rush blush or was I dreaming? But how? I hadn´t contacted her or anything... Or was this Shiro´s work? I mean, his brother could have asked her since his relationship with her was quite closer than to the other half of the squid sisters... To his misfortune of course..

SLOSH

I couldn´t finish my thinking process, since my back was hit with a cold, liquid substance..

" _What the.."_

I touched my back with one of my fingers in order to find out what just had hit me.

" _Light blue ink..?"_

I quickly turned around to see Shiro holding a bucket in his hands, while brightly smirking at me.

,,Don´t make such a surprised face and thank me instead."

I was speechless. Although I had been such a jerk to him, he came to my rescue. If it wasn´t for him I would already be sitting in my dark room, crying about me failing again. But I was still here. Surrounded by happy Inklings dancing to Callies song.

Shiro came a little closer and whispered into my ear:,, Hmm.. Wanna try something new?"

I blushed at this sudden closeness.

He on the other hand stepped a few steps back, raised his hand to his mouth and started to shout:,, Turfwar!"

Before I could react to what was happening, the Inklingboy already grabbed his bucket again and this time covered my whole body in ink. Of course because of his shouting everyone has seen this scenario.

,,Buckets for everyone on your left!" , he shouted, pointing to the mentioned location, where indeed where enough buckets for everyone to use.

,,Let´s make it yellow vs. blue!"

And with that, everyone indeed stormed out to get a bucket and interfere in the new begun battle.

I couldn´t do anything else but grab a bucket myself and join the battlefield as well.

,,I will get my revenge Masato, just you wait!", I laughed.

And with that everyone of us had a great time, while a certain someone took many notes about a potential new weapon to sell for the market.


	24. Chapter 24 - Speak up!

Hey! Just wanted to say that I´m kinda back. Yeah, many of you guys will just joke about it and will ask: Oh yeah? For how long? See you after your next hiatus.

I get it. And I´m sorry that I didn´t update for so long. But I have a private life as well and enough on my plate, promise.

What I really wanted to say though is that I try my best to update this story whenever I can. There is not much left, in fact 2 big events await you until this story will finally find it´s end. I can´t say how many chapters are left though. But I guess there will be around 5-10 Chapters.

That´s all for now, hopefully you will enjoy this chapter and have a nice day ~

* * *

Chapter 24 – Speak up!

In silence Shiro and me walked next to each other on the sidewalk, neither of us daring to break the quietness. It seemed like we both had quiet some thoughts on our minds, everyone lost in their own little world. I mean, I constantly avoided the squidboy and even told him to let me alone. And still here we are.. Walking side by side after a fun turf war match, like nothing had happened at all. In this moment I really didn´t know what to say either. How could I after I had behaved like.. Like exactly what? I just had done what my mother had told me to and of course I didn´t want to disappoint her. But the whole time my behavior towards Shiro had felt so terribly wrong. So wrong that I was hurting in fact. Beside that it was unfair towards the blue Inkling boy as well, since he had been nothing but kind to me. Even after I had been so cold to him.. He had come to my rescue today.

But what now? My mom must have her reasons for commanding me to not stay in contact with him. I would die for the details on what had happened in the past.

,,You are still mad at me, aren´t you.", Shiro stated.

" _Oh boy, now it´s my turn to talk, I guess."_

,,I.. I am not mad.. In fact I never was..", I simply said.

Shiro raised an eyebrow at that:,, Sure.. Then why did you avoid me all this time? For fun?"

I didn´t know how to respond. There I was between my conflicting feelings. On the one hand I didn´t want my mother to get mad at me for betraying her. On the other hand in my opinion it was just childish to ignore the squid boy. And not only that.. We had become friends by now .. Not even just that.. I couldn´t deny my feelings towards the Inkling boy anymore..

I took a deep breath and decided to listen to my heart:,, My mother told me to stay away from you."

,,What?! Why would she do that?", Shiro immediately stopped in his tracks.

I sighed, making a halt as well:,, I´m so sorry.. I really don´t know the details about that as well.. I just.."

I again took a deep breath since I was so nervous about this conversation:,,Look, remember when you brought me home the other day?"

Shiro nodded.

,,Well, my mother saw you and immediately asked who you were. So I told her what your name was and that she must know you since we are childhood friends."

,,And?", the Inkling boy asked, obviously curious about what I would say next.

,,She totally freaked out, told me that I should stay away from you and stuff."

,,Wait but why? She must have a reason for saying something like.."

I cut him off:,, The only thing she told me was that it´s your father´s fault that my father is dead!"

Silence.

I could visibly see how Shiro´s face lost his color and instead turned to almost white. Either he must be a good actor or he was truly shocked about what I just had told him.

I carefully asked:,, Do you.. Do you know something about this? I mean my mother wouldn´t just make something like that up.. I.. I really didn´t want to avoid you.. I just wanted to be a good daughter but didn´t want to hurt you either.."

Tears started to form in my eyes.

,,Or did you know this all along and just played some filthy tricks on me so you could..", my voice cracked at this very moment and I couldn´t hold it together any longer.

Tears started to flow down my cheeks. I wanted to say more.. I wanted to speak out everything what went through my mind the whole past week but I just couldn´t find my voice again. All the sadness, negativity, anger, frustration and loneliness I had build up, found it´s way out in this very instant. When my body finally collapsed on the ground, Shiro quickly kneeled on my side and took me in his arms.

,,I.. I´m so sorry, Suzu. I just don´t know what to say..", he calmly whispered, still being in shock though.

As I heard him saying this, I tried to fight against his embrace, squealing:,, So you knew..?!"

,,NO!", he cut me off. ,,Of course I didn´t know! I would never lie to you. No one in our family ever told us anything about this."

,,So are you saying that my mother´s lying?!"

He forced me to look directly in his eyes:,, No! Look, you can trust me Suzu. I don´t know nothing about anything. I didn´t even know that your father was dead until you told us the other day! Maybe Shota knows something. Squid hell, I don´t know! Didn´t you ask your mother.."

,,No, she wouldn´t tell me anything beside that..", I sniffed.

Shiro sighed and took me back in his arms:,, It´s okay. We will make it work, I promise. Maybe we have to talk to your mother or even my brother for more details. Squid hell, I don´t know. But you have to promise me that you will stop freaking avoiding me okay? I felt so.. I missed you so much.. I thought I did something very wrong and.."

Now it was Shiro´s voice time to crack. I could tell that he was nearly tearing up as well. But he hold it together.

We just sat there for a long time, sitting on the sidewalk and just being in each others arms. His body warmed mine, making me slowly calm down. And holy squid, his scent he always wears.. Just now I could truly admit to myself how very much I had missed him.


End file.
